Experimental Arts in Postwar Japan: Moments of Encounter, Engagement, and Imagined Return

by Sas, Miryam

• ISBN13: 9780674053403
• ISBN10: 0674053400
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-04-25
• Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr

Summary

In the years of rapid economic growth following the protest movements of the 1960s, artists and intellectuals in Japan searched for a means of direct impact on the whirlwind of historical and cultural transformations of their time. Yet while the artists often called for such "direct" encounter, their works complicate this ideal with practices of interruption, self-reflexive mimesis, and temporal discontinuity. In an era known for idealism and activism, some of the most cherished ideals-intimacy between subjects, authenticity, a sense of home-are limitlessly desired yet always just out of reach.In this book, Miryam Sas explores the theoretical and cultural implications of experimental arts in a range of media. Casting light on important moments in the arts from the 1960s to the early 1980s, this study focuses first on underground (post-shingeki) theater and then on related works of experimental film and video, buto dance and photography. Emphasizing the complex and sophisticated theoretical grounding of these artists through their works, practices, and writings, this book also locates Japanese experimental arts in an extensive, sustained dialogue with key issues of contemporary critical theory.

Table of Contents

List of Figures	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Introduction: Death Acts (Survival Acts)	p. 1
Modes of Engagement: Post-Shingeki's Edge	p. 13
No Holds Barred: Betsuyaku Minoru and the paradoxes of Total Commitment	p. 15
Terayama Shuji: Gender, Power, and the Imperative Voice	p. 36
Blindness and the Visuality of Desire	p. 56
Intersubjective Spaces, Communal Dreams	p. 74
Theories of Encounter	p. 95
Theories of Encounter: Breaking the Everyday	p. 97
Imaginations of Return: Film, Buto, Photography	p. 127
X Marks the Spot: Experimental Film Crossings	p. 129
On Homecoming: Hijikata's Writings and Buto	p. 158
The Provoke Era: New Languages of Japanese Photography	p. 180
Conclusion: Counterfeit Coins/Phantasms	p. 201
Notes	p. 219
Bibliography	p. 257
Index	p. 267
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