English language representations of Japanese culture with Tokyo Indigested : a creative response
- Publication Type:
- Thesis
- Issue Date:
- 2006
Closed Access
| Filename | Description | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Front.pdf | contents and abstract | 410.8 kB | |||
| 02Whole.pdf | thesis | 11.52 MB |
Copyright Clearance Process
- Recently Added
- In Progress
- Closed Access
This item is closed access and not available.
NO FULL TEXT AVAILABLE. This thesis contains 3rd party copyright material. ----- This thesis comes in two parts: a multi-media creative project and an
exegesis. The first demonstrates the potential of using cultural
representations as a means of exploring my fragmented and constructed
identities. In this component I employ short fictions, images and sound in
a way that engages a sense of alien existence, where the Other affords
journeys of self-exploration. Secondly, this written exegesis examines
interdisciplinary academic and popular representations of Japanese culture
to reflect upon what journeys of self-discovery and self-invention they
might permit their creators. In the process of writing this exegesis, I came
to conceive of cultural representations as acts of becoming, which display
the processes of being invented. Certainly, identities are the products of
ideologies within our institutions, cultural values, relationships and
political discourses. Equally, cultural representations are simply memoirs
of the authors in question, demonstrative of their unpredictable emotions.
In both cases we need to consider how our subjects might serve us as
writers. I review certain popular and academic representations of Japanese
culture to investigate whether such considerations are in effect. Explicitly,
I consider whether the writers in question recognise their own
representations of themselves within their work, alongside what this
allows them to achieve personally. While our creative projects, academic
representations and popular political illustrations provide numerous
journeys and outlets, they come with the threat of objectifying and
exploiting our subjects. A commitment to performance and self-parody
proves important here, as it demonstrates our own fictive selves and our
constructed senses of individualism. Recognising emotions at the core of
cultural representations opens greater space for cross-cultural dialogues.
Here we might explore where our engagements with our cultural products
begin. I am personally permitted a sense of release from alienation,
alongside the potential to re-create my own identities within my creative
project. In this exegesis, I recognise an unwillingness on the part of
writers to proclaim such personal gains through their writings. While
there are numerous problems concerning our ethical obligations towards
our subjects, we might begin with an honest reflection of what our
representations allow us to achieve personally.
Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: