Japan's Private Spheres
Author | : William Puck Brecher |
Publisher | : Intimate and the Public in Asi |
Total Pages | : 384 |
Release | : 2021 |
ISBN-10 | : 9004447547 |
ISBN-13 | : 9789004447547 |
Rating | : 4/5 (47 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: "Japan's Private Spheres: Autonomy in Japanese History, 1600-1930 traces the shifting nature of autonomy in early modern and modern Japan. In this far-reaching, interdisciplinary study, W. Puck Brecher explores the historical development of the private and its evolving relationship with public authority, a dynamic that evokes stereotypes about an alleged dearth of individual agency in Japanese society. It does so through a montage of case studies. For the early modern era, case studies examine peripheral living spaces, boyhood, and self-interrogation in the arts. For the modern period, they explore strategic deviance, individuality in Meiji education, modern leisure, and body-maintenance. Analysis of these disparate private realms illuminates evolving conceptualizations of the private and its reciprocal yet often-contested relationship to the state"--