Some Aspects of Sartre’s Reception among Post-war Japanese Intellectuals

Event details
Speaker : Dr Simone Müller
               Lecturer, Zurich University
Date      : Friday, 15 August 2008
Time      : 2:00pm - 3:30pm
Venue    : AS4/03-28 (JS Meeting Room)

Abstract

Existentialist thought had a profound impact on the intellectual and literary fields in twentieth-century Japan, particularly in the post-war era when the influence of French – notably Sartrean – existentialism on Japanese intellectual thought became very prominent. Sartre and his theses were the focus of broad social and academic interest until the 70s, a time by which his relevance to the intellectual discourse in Europe had diminished.

In my presentation I will investigate the reception of Sartre in post-war Japan, in order to highlight some aspects of the reasons for Sartre's influence on Japanese history of ideas. I propose that Bourdieu's field theory is helpful in explaining the economic and structural conditions that enabled Sartre to become a leading figure for post-war Japanese intellectuals.

About the speaker

Simone Müller , Dr. Phil (Zurich)

Dr Simone Müller's research focuses on Japanese literature and intellectual history. Currently she is working on a postdoctoral thesis on the reception of existentialism on post-war Japanese literature and history of ideas.

Among her writings are studies on classical Japanese dream poetry and modern literary issues, such as researches on the writings of Noma Hiroshi and Miyamoto Yuriko. Her most recent publication deals with the impact of existentialism on the writings of Shiina Rinzô and Ôe Kenzaburô, which will appear in fall 2008 in the German yearbook Bochumer Jahrbuch zur Ostasienforschung.

Dr Müller works as a lecturer and research fellow at Zurich University.