Glocalizing Murakami Haruki = 村上春樹的全球在地化
Organizer
The Centre for Humanities Research, Lingnan University
Document Type
Public Lecture
Date
4-13-2012
Time
3:30 p.m. -- 5:00 p.m.
Venue
SO108, Dorothy Y.L. Wong Building, Lingnan University
Description
In the past fifteen years or so, contemporary Japanese author Murakami Haruki has become vastly popular outside Japan, particularly in the English-speaking world and in East Asia. Most fans of Murakami today are neither specialists of Japanese studies nor particularly interested in Japanese literature, and regard him not as a “Japanese writer” but simply as “a writer.” In this sense, his works represent a paramount example of the kind of “de-nationalized” and “culturally odorless” popular products that Iwabuchi Koichi sees at the centre of Japan’s strategies of glocalization. At the same time, thanks to his position on the boundary between “high” and “low” literature, the case of Murakami challenges some assumptions of theories of globalization, which tend to focus on flows of popular culture, rather than literary genres. In my paper, I will analyze the way in which this author plays on multiple cultural positioning in order to subvert fixed notions of nationality and identity. 過去十五年，日本當代作家村上春樹風靡世界，在英文國家和東亞地區特別受歡迎。村上的大多數讀者都不是專門從事日本研究的學者，對日本文學也不一定很感興趣。他們更多地把村上春樹看作一位“作家”，而非“日本作家”。在此意義上，他的作品是研究“ 去國族化的”、“文化無氣味的”流行產物非常重要的例子。日本學者岩淵功一將這種流行產物看作日本全球在地化策略的中心。當下一些全球化理論的側重點在於流行文化的流動，然而村上春樹的作品立於“高雅文學”和“低俗文學”的邊界，駁斥了這種全球化理論。本次講座探討村上春樹如何通過多元文化定位上的詭變，推翻“國族性”和“身份” 的定義。
Language
English
Recommended Citation
Suter, R. (2012, April 13). Glocalizing Murakami Haruki [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://commons.ln.edu.hk/videos/307
Additional Information
Speaker
Rebecca Suter is Senior Lecturer in Japanese Studies at the University of Sydney and currently Japan Foundation Visiting Researcher at Keio University, Tokyo. Her main research interests are in modern Japanese literature and popular culture, with a cross-cultural focus. Her first book, The Japanization of Modernity, examined contemporary Japanese writer Murakami Haruki’s role as a cultural mediator between Japan and the United States. Her current book project investigates the use of Christian imagery in modern Japanese fiction, including literature, film, manga, and anime. She has taught Japanese language and literature at the Italian Institute for Africa and the Orient, Harvard University, and Brown University. She also works as a translator of manga, and has translated works by Shinohara Chie, Anno Moyoko, Miuchi Suzue, Asano Inio, Kitoh Mohiro, Katayama Kyoichi, Matsumoto Taiyô, and Unita Yumi, among others.
講者
瑞貝卡•蘇特博士是悉尼大學日本研究高 級講師，東京慶 應義塾大學日本基金訪問研究員。她的研究領域是跨文化視野下的日本現代文學和流行文化。她的第一本專著《現代性的日本化》中曾探討村上春樹作為日本與美國之間的文化中介角色。她現正在寫自己的第二本學術專著，研究日本現代小說中的基督教形象，其中也涉及電影、動漫等其它文類。她曾在哈佛大學非洲及東方研究所和布朗大學教授日語和 日本文學，曾翻 譯的日本漫畫包括篠原千繪、安野夢洋子、美內鈴惠、淺野一二○、鬼頭莫宏、片山恭一、松本大洋、宇仁田由美等畫家的作品。