The Politics of Dialogic Imagination: Power and Popular Culture in Early Modern Japan (Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning)

Synopsis

Ina"The Politics of Dialogic Imagination," Katsuya Hirano seeks to understand why, with its seemingly unrivaled power, the Tokugawa shogunate of early modern Japan tried so hard to regulate the ostensibly unimportant popular culture of Edo (present-day Tokyo)OCoincluding fashion, leisure activities, prints, and theater. He does so by examining the works of writers and artists who depicted and celebrated the culture of play and pleasure associated with EdoOCOs street entertainers, vagrants, actors, and prostitutes, whom Tokugawa authorities condemned to be detrimental to public mores, social order, and political economy. Hirano uncovers a logic of politics within EdoOCOs cultural works that was extremely potent in exposing contradictions between the formal structure of the Tokugawa world and its rapidly changing realities. He goes on to look at the effects of this logic, examining policies enacted during the next eraOCothe Meiji periodOCothat mark a drastic reconfiguration of power and a new politics toward ordinary people under modernizing Japan. Deftly navigating JapanOCOs history and culture, a"The Politics of Dialogic Imagination"provides a sophisticated account of a country in the process of radical transformationOCoand of the intensely creative culture that came out of it. "

Copyright:

2014

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

ISBN-13:

9780226060736

Related ISBNs:

9780226060422, 9780226060569

Publisher:

The University of Chicago Press

Date of Addition:

03/23/18

Copyrighted By:

The University of Chicago Press

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

History, Nonfiction, Science, Art and Architecture, Literature and Fiction, Social Studies, Drama, Plays and Theater, Language Arts, Humor, Politics and Government

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.