questions for Week 8 ★June 2rd & Make-up session (same day)

Week 8 ★June 2rd   Discussion Session

Required Readings

Dorman, Andrew. (2016). “Introduction” & “Cultural Specificity and Globalization”. Paradoxical Japaneseness: Cultural Representation in 21st Century Japanese Cinema. Palgrave McMillian.

1)    What is D’s basic assumption on ‘cultural specificity’ (think of our previous discussions of ‘multiculturalism’) and the ‘paradoxical nature’ of a national cinema? In other words, how has he tried to avoid the essentialist stance in tacking the ‘specificity’? Your thoughts? Try to recapitulate his points/framework apropos of Japanese cinema in one line.

2)    For D then, how do framings of ‘cultural concealment’ and ‘cultural performance’ connect with his major points, and his case studies, which range from specific filmmakers, production dynamics to (strategies for/of) film festivals? You thoughts/critiques?

3)    Review D’s discussions of national cinema, nation-state and globalization. What are his major points? Any critiques (does not only mean ‘criticism’—but critical reading and reaction)?

Ko, Mika. (2010) “Introduction”, “Defining the period: Japanese cinema and society at the turn of the millennium” & “Nationalism, multiculturalism and the problem of Japaneseness”. Japanese Cinema And Otherness: Nationalism, Multiculturalism And The Problem Of Japaneseness. Routledge. Pp1-8& pp. 9-32

1)    Both D and KM have reviewed Japanese cinema studies (per Yoshimoto etc.). Thoughts?

2)    How had KM reviewed and critiqued Japaneseness/nihonjinron and Japanese nationalism (am talking about her framing of discussions—context etc., and the contents/points themselves—related concepts and notions)?

3)    How to grasp the discourse of hybridity (per Hall; recall Bhabha)/ difference in relation to nihonjinron as mentioned by KM here? How may KM dialogue with D regarding cultural specificity, and multiculturalism (per Zizek)? What are her critiques of these frameworks, and what are her takes apropos of identity politics?

4) Thoughts on cosmetic multiculturalism in terms of the representation of Okinawa and Zainichi culture (including cinema)?

6. Zainichi Cinema?

Required Readings

Dew, Oliver (2016). “Introduction: Koreans-in-Japan On-Screen”. Zainichi Cinema: Korean-in-Japan Film Culture. Palgrave McMillian. Pp.1-35

1)    How has Dew Oliver (DO) framed Zainichi cinema in relation to the Zainichi identity (citizen movements), Zainichi film culture, film business and authorship?

2)    How does DO frame Zainichi as ‘postcolonial denizenship’? Any linkages between DO and Ko’s accounts?

3)    How does DO approach Zainichi films differently from Ko? Thoughts on the connections between diasporic cinema and affect?  

Ko, Mika. (2010). “Zainichi”. Japanese Cinema And Otherness: Nationalism, Multiculturalism And The Problem Of Japaneseness. Routledge. Pp.115-135

Learn about the complicacy in referring to Zainichi. Any new understandings of ‘Koreanesness’? How has Ko problematized it? 

How does the claim that 'I was not born as a Zainichi. I "became" zainichi by prevailing discrimination in Japanese society and also by the movements that have been challenging them' (133) connect to/differ from Ang's 'Chinese by descent, to speak Chinese by consent'?