Postmodernism and Japan

Postmodernism and Japan is a coherent yet diverse study of the dynamics of postmodernism, as described by Lyotard, Baudrillard, Deleuze, and Guatarri, from the often startling perspective of a society bent on transforming itself into the image of Western “enlightenment” wealth and power. This work provides a unique view of a society in transition and confronting, like its models in the West, the problems induced by the introduction of new forms of knowledge, modes of production, and social relationships.

Masao Miyoshi and H. D. Harootunian, eds.

Introduction / Masao Miyoshi and H. D. Harootunian vii
Note on Japanese Names xxii
On Culture and Technology in Postmodern Japan / Tetsuo Najita 3
Critical Texts, Mass Artifacts: The Consumption of Knowledge in Postmodern Japan / Marilyn Ivy 21
Of City, Nation, and Style / Isozaki Arata 47
Visible Discourses/Invisible Ideologies / H. D. Harootunian 63
Modernity and Its Critique: The Problem of Universalism and Particularism / Naoki Sakai 93
Maruyama Masao and the Incomplete Project of Modernity / J. Victor Koschmann 123
Against the Native Grain: The Japanese Novel and the "Postmodern" West / Masao Miyoshi 143
Somehow: The Postmodern as Atmosphere / Norma Field 169
Japan's Dual Identity: A Writer's Dilemma / -e Kenzabur- 189
Suicide and the Japanese Postmodern: A Postnarrative Paradigm? / Alan Wolfe 215
Karatani K-jin's Origins of Modern Japanese Literature / Brett De Bary 235
Infantile Capitalism and Japan's Postmodernism: A Fairy Tale / Asada Akira 273
Picturing Japan: Reflections on the Workshop / Stephen Melville 279
Glossary 289
Notes on Contributors 297
Index 299