日本動漫的哲學基礎(文類課:其他)

This course explores dramatic structures and frames in Japanese anime that appear perplexing to non-Japanese audiences or have been said by Japanese directors to be incomprehensible to foreigners. It begins by exploring the possibility for explaining elements of anime that defy west-oriented filmic expectations, such as elaborate transformations of bodies in various combinations – human, animal, machine, monster, alien – as well as imaginative forms that are difficult to reduce to phenomenological, psychoanalytical, mechanical, or aesthetic categories that might contain them, such as merely labeling them hybrid genres or the product of metaphorical yoking. Instead, it argues that the putative continuity of filmic form with discernibility derived from western (as universal) philosophical frames may not necessarily apply to anime, which may defy their critical expectations and frames. More than one Japanese anime director has assumed that non-Japanese would not appreciate their work (according to interviews in disk editions of FLCL and Mindscape, others). If one accepts such cultural difference on the surface, it can for instance be accounted for by overseas viewers seeing such cutting-edge anime as exceedingly exotic, different for the pleasure of the viewer in general, while by Japanese it may be seen as exceptional for its own ethnic identity-affirming sake. Either approach would leave it somewhat mysterious. What this course investigates are means of philosophizing these points of divergence – distinctive features of anime that stand out – in terms of fresh speculative genealogies that serve as a local stand-in for a so-called universal western frame, by foregrounding as fundamental Japanese philosophical writings (read broadly, including prose writers and making reference to poetry as a model). When using phenomenology as a universalizing basis for containing alternative ontologies generated in anime (and citing Husserl, Heidegger, Deleuze, others), one allows familiar European frames of comprehension – assumed to contain all contingencies for otherness – to maintain a critical hegemony. On the contrary, by foregrounding the relevant work on expression by Nishida Kitarō, Miki Kiyoshi, and others, as well as explorations of supernatural phenomena by numerous National Studies (kokugaku) scholars and early twentieth-century ethnographers, one encourages less academic painting of ourselves into canonical western corners (for instance, by focusing on binary questions surrounding modernity in Japan, which can themselves be seen as distractions merely enabling outsiders less immersed in a cultural context to locate cultural productions by way of familiar tropes). Such links with early writings on similar cultural products – transformations of living agents – make possible philosophical criticism engaging past philosophical investigations in Japan and perplexing contemporary cultural inventions in anime today. While certainly, at least from a first glance, critics of this approach will label it essentializing and summarily dismiss it, such a reaction may be seen as further entrenchment by the established hegemony. This course explores outlines for paths forward in assessing how numerous untapped writings may help articulate difficult anime without mystifying them.

Course is conducted in English. Interested graduate and undergraduate students welcome

Seminar format: questions and discussion; dialogue; student presentations; lecture; occasional writing and essay quizzes; formal final research paper. This class explores readings in Japanese thought and anime studies in English discourse on anime and translations from Japanese. It also includes brief excerpts and analysis of clips, images, and audio from anime. Students are encouraged to share their explorations of class topics in relation to their own favorite anime (in the spirit of anime). This should be on an ongoing basis (ideally, within the discussion in every class), not only in one’s seminar paper.

Grading Criteria Daily contribution to class discussion, leadings discussions on selected assigned readings as needed, and diagnostic assignments (in-class writing; homework writing; scheduled quizzes on basic concepts): 50% Final paper (may be developed from presentations): 50% Attendance: -2 from final grade for each unexcused absence. (Even when an excused absence, a make-up assignment is required to avoid the “-2,” such as a short essay about the readings on the day missed.)

Course readings are in English translation from Japanese, and provided by the professor via e3, in-class handouts, and links to open-access materials.

地點

HC415

時間

Wednesdays 1-3pm; and by arrangement HC415 interpoetics@gmail.com brink@nycu.edu.tw x58115

聯絡方式

interpoetics@gmail.com brink@nycu.edu.tw x58115