Papers by Takanori Shimamura
This paper aims to provide a general outline of the development of vernacular studies in Japan as... more This paper aims to provide a general outline of the development of vernacular studies in Japan as well as a vision for the future of vernacular studies based on that development.
The most important thing for understanding vernacular studies is that this discipline’s full formation came about in Germany in opposition to the enlightenment centered in France in the 18th and 19th centuries and to the hegemonism of Napoleon, who tried to dominate all of Europe. Afterward, societies that shared their anti-hegemony context with Germany were encouraged directly or indirectly by Germany’s vernacular studies. They vigorously formed this discipline, but each in its own way. Specifically, vernacular studies has developed and arrived in the present day in regions such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Czech, Hungary, Greek, Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, and India and in newer nations like the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.
What vernacular studies has consistently investigated throughout its academic history is human life on a different level from social phases that have been considered to be hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream. It is knowledge that was brought about through the close study of these. Generally, modern science is a body of knowledge produced from broad social phases considered hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream, but vernacular studies becomes compellingly unique by confronting these characteristics and attempting to create knowledge that overcomes their broad social application. Therefore, while it is a type of modern science, vernacular studies is also an alternative discipline that contrasts with modern science in general.
Among the many traditions of folkloristics that exist around the world, this paper attempts to si... more Among the many traditions of folkloristics that exist around the world, this paper attempts to situate the Japanese school, commonly known as minzokugaku, outlining the process of its formation, the process by which it came to its current position, and its prospects for the future. In doing so, I also hope to provide some more general observations on the nature of folkloristics.
The role of folkloristics in a global context is a major one. Faced with the overwhelmingly powerful onslaught of globalization, how will people living in the various regions of the Earth respond to that onslaught, and how will they seek to live on in the midst of globalization? How can we express that wisdom as folklore? That is the challenge that folkloristics must tackle.
Under the heavy influence of the ideology of the nation-state, Japanese folklore studies has been... more Under the heavy influence of the ideology of the nation-state, Japanese folklore studies has been largely incapable of examining the cultural diversity that exists within the Japanese archipelago. There have been some exceptions, but even then the research has suffered from problems of cultural essentialism, of taking the concept of " Japan " as axiomatic, stopping at the level of independent research, or lacking synthesis or theoriza tion. " Multiculturalist folklore studies is a reconfiguration that attempts to overcome these problems, and to raise research on cultural diversity in folklore studies to the level of a methodological system. This is a new folklore studies paradigm that, in treating folk tradition as hum an culture, attends to universal differences associated with class, region, gender, and individuality, and aims to achieve the kind of analysis that fully considers the politicality of culture. This development is anticipated as a folklore studies paradigm that is suitable for a new era in which the nation-state is relativized— a so-called " New Middle Age " society— and that is attuned to the social conditions of this era. Keywords: multiculturalist folklore studies— critical multiculturalism— post-nation-state— cultural studies— new Middle Ages Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 62， 2003: 195— 225
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Papers by Takanori Shimamura
The most important thing for understanding vernacular studies is that this discipline’s full formation came about in Germany in opposition to the enlightenment centered in France in the 18th and 19th centuries and to the hegemonism of Napoleon, who tried to dominate all of Europe. Afterward, societies that shared their anti-hegemony context with Germany were encouraged directly or indirectly by Germany’s vernacular studies. They vigorously formed this discipline, but each in its own way. Specifically, vernacular studies has developed and arrived in the present day in regions such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Czech, Hungary, Greek, Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, and India and in newer nations like the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.
What vernacular studies has consistently investigated throughout its academic history is human life on a different level from social phases that have been considered to be hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream. It is knowledge that was brought about through the close study of these. Generally, modern science is a body of knowledge produced from broad social phases considered hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream, but vernacular studies becomes compellingly unique by confronting these characteristics and attempting to create knowledge that overcomes their broad social application. Therefore, while it is a type of modern science, vernacular studies is also an alternative discipline that contrasts with modern science in general.
The role of folkloristics in a global context is a major one. Faced with the overwhelmingly powerful onslaught of globalization, how will people living in the various regions of the Earth respond to that onslaught, and how will they seek to live on in the midst of globalization? How can we express that wisdom as folklore? That is the challenge that folkloristics must tackle.
The most important thing for understanding vernacular studies is that this discipline’s full formation came about in Germany in opposition to the enlightenment centered in France in the 18th and 19th centuries and to the hegemonism of Napoleon, who tried to dominate all of Europe. Afterward, societies that shared their anti-hegemony context with Germany were encouraged directly or indirectly by Germany’s vernacular studies. They vigorously formed this discipline, but each in its own way. Specifically, vernacular studies has developed and arrived in the present day in regions such as Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Ireland, Wales, Scotland, Brittany, Czech, Hungary, Greek, Japan, China, Korea, the Philippines, and India and in newer nations like the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.
What vernacular studies has consistently investigated throughout its academic history is human life on a different level from social phases that have been considered to be hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream. It is knowledge that was brought about through the close study of these. Generally, modern science is a body of knowledge produced from broad social phases considered hegemonic, omnipresent, central, and mainstream, but vernacular studies becomes compellingly unique by confronting these characteristics and attempting to create knowledge that overcomes their broad social application. Therefore, while it is a type of modern science, vernacular studies is also an alternative discipline that contrasts with modern science in general.
The role of folkloristics in a global context is a major one. Faced with the overwhelmingly powerful onslaught of globalization, how will people living in the various regions of the Earth respond to that onslaught, and how will they seek to live on in the midst of globalization? How can we express that wisdom as folklore? That is the challenge that folkloristics must tackle.