Situated Meaning

by Bachnik, Jane M.; Quinn, Charles J., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780691015385
• ISBN10: 0691015384
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1994-01-01
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

Situated Meaning adds a new dimension, both literal and metaphoric, to our understanding of Japan. The essays in this volume leave the vertical axis of hierarchy and subordination--an organizing trope in much of the literature on Japan--and focus instead on the horizontal, interpreting a wide range of cultural practices and orientations in terms of such relational concepts as uchi ("inside") and soto ("outside"). Evolving from a shared theoretical focus, the essays show that in Japan the directional orientations inside and outside are specifically linked to another set of meanings, denoting "self" and "society."After Donald L. Brenneis's foreword, Jane M. Bachnik, Charles J. Quinn, Jr., Patricia J. Wetzel, Nancy R. Rosenberger, and Robert J. Sukle discuss "Indexing Self and Social Context." "Failure to Index: Boundary Disintegration and Social Breakdown" is the topic of Dorinne K. Kondo, Matthews M. Hamabata, Michael S. Molasky, and Jane Bachnik. Finally, Charles Quinn explores "Language as a Form of Life."

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Note on Romanization
Key to Abbreviations and Orthographic Conventions
Contributors
Introduction: uchi/soto: Challenging Our Conceptualizations of Self, Social Order, and Language	p. 3
The Terms uchi and soto as Windows on a World	p. 38
A Movable Self: The Linguistic Indexing of uchi and soto	p. 73
Indexing Hierarchy through Japanese Gender Relations	p. 88
Uchi/soto: Choices in Directive Speech Acts in Japanese	p. 113
Indexing Self and Society in Japanese Family Organization	p. 143
Uchi no kaisha: Company as Family?	p. 169
The Battle to Belong: Self-Sacrifice and Self-Fulfillment in the Japanese Family Enterprise	p. 192
When uchi and soto Fell Silent in the Night: Shifting Boundaries in Shiga Naoya's "The Razor"	p. 209
Uchi/Soto: Authority and Intimacy, Hierarchy and Solidarity in Japan	p. 223
Uchi/Soto: Tip of a Semiotic Iceberg? 'Inside' and 'Outside' Knowledge in the Grammar of Japanese	p. 247
Index	p. 295
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.