Essays on Japan : between aesthetics and literature

520 Pages·2010·2 MB·English

by  Marra

Essays on Japan
Brill’s Japanese
Studies Library
Edited by
Joshua Mostow (Managing Editor)
Caroline Rose
Kate Wildman Nakai
VOLUME 35
Essays on Japan
Between Aesthetics and Literature
by
Michael F. Marra
LEIDEN • BOSTON
2010
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Marra, Michael F.
Essays on Japan : between aesthetics and literature / by Michael F. Marra.
p. cm. — (Brill’s Japanese studies library, ISSN 0925-6512 ; v. 35)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-90-04-18977-5 (hardback : alk. paper)
1. Japanese literature—History and criticism—Theory, etc. 2. Aesthetics, Japanese.
3. Hermeneutics. I. Title.
PL708.M37 2010
895.6’09—dc22
2010031856

ISSN: 0925-6512
ISBN: 978 90 04 18977 5
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To Gianni Vattimo
and Sergio Mamino (1956–2003)—
The devil is in the details,
the fun is somewhere else…

CONTENTS
List of Original Publications ............................................................ ix
Preface .................................................................................................. xiii
AESTHETICS
1. Japanese Aesthetics in the World ............................................. 3
2. The Creation of the Vocabulary of Aesthetics in
Meiji Japan ................................................................................... 23
3. Aesthetics: An Overview ........................................................... 49
4. Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning .............. 57
5. Japan’s Missing Alternative: “Weak Thought” and the
Hermeneutics of Slimness ......................................................... 81
6. Coincidentia Oppositorium: The Greek Genealogies of
Japan ............................................................................................. 113
7. Conrad Fiedler and the Aesthetics of the Kyōto School ...... 131
8. On Japanese Things and Words: An Answer to Heidegger’s
Question ....................................................................................... 149
9. A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an
Inquirer: Kuki Shūzō’s Version ................................................. 167
10. Frameworks of Meaning: Old Aesthetic Categories and the
Present .......................................................................................... 187
11. Paradoxes of Reclusion: Between Aesthetics and
Anti-Aesthetics ............................................................................ 203
12. The Dissolution of Meaning: Towards an Aesthetics of
Non-Sense .................................................................................... 227
13. Hermeneutics of Emplacement: On Places, Cuts, and
Promises ....................................................................................... 249
LITERATURE
14. The Hermeneutical Challenge .................................................. 277
15. Place of Poetry, Place in Poetry: On Rulers, Poets,
and Gods ...................................................................................... 295
viii contents
16. Playing with Japanese Songs: Politics or Pleasure? ............... 307
17. Continuity in Discontinuity: Thinking The Tale of Genji
with Japanese Thinkers .............................................................. 327
18. The Aesthetics of Tradition: Making the Past Present ......... 349
19. Nativist Hermeneutics: The Interpretative Strategies of
Motoori Norinaga and Fujitani Mitsue ................................... 365
20. An Interview with Michael F. Marra
by Robert D. Wilson .................................................................. 417
21. Fields of Contention: Philology (Bunkengaku) and the
Philosophy of Literature (Bungeigaku) .................................... 423
22. The Poetry of Aizu Yaichi ......................................................... 451
23. Poetry and Poetics in Tension: Kuki Shūzō’s French and
German Connections ................................................................. 471
24. History and Comparability ....................................................... 491
Bibliography of Michael F. Marra’s Works ..................................... 497
Index .................................................................................................... 501
LIST OF ORIGINAL PUBLICATIONS
1. ‘Japanese Aesthetics in the World,’ in Shinohara Motoaki, ed., Iwa-
nami Kōza: Tetsugaku, Vol. 7 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 2008), pp.
179–202.
2. ‘The Creation of the Vocabulary of Aesthetics in Meiji Japan,’ in
J. Thomas Rimer, ed., Japanese Art of the Modern Age (Honolulu:
University of Hawai’i Press, forthcoming).
3. ‘Aesthetics: An Overview,’ in James Heisig, Thomas Kasulis, and John
Maraldo, eds., Sources in Japanese Philosophy (Honolulu: University
of Hawai’i Press, forthcoming).
4. ‘Japanese Aesthetics: The Construction of Meaning,’ in Philosophy
East and West 45:3 (July 1995), pp. 367–386, http://www.jstor.org/
stable/pdfplus/1399394.pdf.
5. ‘Japan’s Missing Alternative: Weak Thought and the Hermeneutics
of Slimness,’ in Versus, 83/84 (May 1999), pp. 215–241.
6. ‘Coincidentia Oppositorum: The Greek Genealogies of Japan,’ in
Michael F. Marra, ed. Japanese Hermeneutics: Current Debates on
Aesthetics and Interpretation (Honolulu: The University of Hawai’i
Press, 2002), pp. 142–152.
7. ‘Conrad Fiedler and the Aesthetics of the Kyōto School.’ Paper pre-
sented at the Third International Congress for Aesthetics, Taipei,
Taiwan (August 26, 2004).
8. ‘On Japanese Things and Words: An Answer to Heidegger’s
Question,’ in Philosophy East and West 54:4 (October, 2004), pp.
555–568, http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/philosophy_east_and_west/
v054/54.4marra.pdf.
9. ‘A Dialogue on Language between a Japanese and an Inquirer:
Kuki Shūzō’s Version,’ in Victor Sōgen Hori and Melissa Anne-
Marie Curley, eds., Neglected Themes and Hidden Variations,
Frontiers of Japanese Philosophy 2 (Nagoya: Nanzan Institute for
Religion and Culture, 2008), pp. 56–77, http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/
SHUBUNKEN/publications/EJPhilosophy/PDF/EJP2–Marra.pdf.
10. ‘Frameworks of Meaning: Old Aesthetic Categories and the Present,’
in Atsuko Ueda and Richard Okada, eds., Literature and Literary
Theory, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies
(PAJLS), Vol. 9 (2008), pp. 153–163.
x list of original publications
11. ‘Paradoxes of Reclusion: Between Aesthetics and Anti-Aesthetics.’
Paper delivered at the Second International Symposium “Elegant
City Planning: from Kireisabi to Mabusabi,” Kyoto University, Japan
(October 26, 2009).
12. ‘The Dissolution of Meaning: Towards an Aesthetics of Non-Sense,’
in The Asian Journal of Aesthetics & Art Sciences 1:1 (2008), pp.
15–27.
13. ‘Hermeneutics of Emplacement: On Places, Cuts, and Promises.’
Paper prepared for the International Symposium “Questioning Ori-
ental Aesthetics and Thinking: Conflicting Visions of ‘Asia’ under
the Colonial Empires,” International Research Center for Japanese
Studies, Kyōto, Japan (November 8, 2010).
14. ‘The Hermeneutical Challenge,’ in Michael F. Marra, ed., Herme-
neutical Strategies: Methods of Interpretation in the Study of Japanese
Literature, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary
Studies (PAJLS), Vol. 5 (Summer 2004), pp. 1–16.
15. ‘Place of Poetry, Place in Poetry: On Rulers, Poets, and Gods,’ in
Eiji Sekine, ed., Travel in Japanese Representational Culture: Its Past,
Present, and Future, Proceedings of the Association for Japanese
Literary Studies (PAJLS), Vol. 8 (Summer 2007), pp. 35–46.
16. ‘Playing withy Japanese Songs: Politics or Pleasure?,’ in Michael F.
Marra, Seasons and Landscapes in Japanese Poetry: An Introduction
to Haiku and Waka (Lewinston: The Edwin Mellen Press, 2008),
pp. 1–24.
17. ‘Continuity in Discontinuity: Thinking The Tale of Genji with Japa-
nese Thinkers,’ in Genji: Genji Monogatari no Hon’yaku to Hensō
(Kyoto: Dōshisha Daigaku Daigakuin Bungaku Kenkyūka, 2008),
pp. 55–80.
18. ‘The Aesthetics of Tradition: Making the Past Present,’ in Ken’ichi
Sasaki, ed., Aesthetics of Asia (Singapore and Kyoto: NUS Press and
Kyoto University Press, 2010), pp. 41–55.
19. ‘Nativist Hermeneutics: The Interpretative Strategies of Motoori
Norinaga and Fujitani Mitsue,’ in Japan Review: Bulletin of the Inter-
national Research Center for Japanese Studies, Number 10 (October
1998), pp. 17–52, http://shinku.nichibun.ac.jp/jpub/pdf/jr/IJ1002
.pdf.
20. ‘An Interview with Michael F. Marra by Robert D. Wilson: On
Motoori Norinaga,’ in Simply Haiku—A Quarterly Journal of Japa-
nese Short Form Poetry 5:3 (Autumn 2007), http://www.simplyhaiku
.com/SHv5n3/features/Marra.html.