In this Japan Studies of Australia Association pre-conference event six scholars in the fields of art history, literature, intellectual history and theatre, explore the ways in which the Japanese imported, appreciated, and interpreted an imagined ‘Other’ over the course of a millennium. Their research reflects a close and critical reading of primary source materials, enhanced by an engagement with contemporary theoretical concerns. The first panel, ‘Part 1: Ancient & Medieval Interactions with the Other’, focuses on such issues as the re-interpretation of the notion of ‘xiao’ or ‘filial piety’ in the Nara and Heian periods, adaptations of Chinese historical records in medieval noh plays, and the transfiguration of Aesop and his Fables in late-medieval fiction. The second panel, ‘Part 2: Early Modern Interactions with the Other’, engages with issues related to the Chinese epic romance, Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin, or Outlaws of the Marsh), as it is illustrated and introduced to a popular audience, the hinterlands as Other in the correspondence between an Echigo Province intellectual and his counterparts in cosmopolitan Edo, and Japan itself as Other as new dramatic forms appear on the early Meiji stage. Both panels, and all six presentations, promise to provoke and stimulate as participants explore the shifting boundaries between the familiar and the alien at crucial points in Japan's cultural history.

Speakers:

• Kimiko Kono, Waseda University
• Michael Watson, Meiji Gakuin University
• Lawrence Marceau, University of Auckland
• Khanh Trinh, Art Gallery of New South Wales
• Takeshi Moriyama, Murdoch University
• Rachel M. Payne, University of Canterbury
  

Joint conference of the Japan Studies Association of Australia and the International Conference on Japanese Language Education 13-16 July 2009
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Free. No bookings required