2016/
17 John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies
With Guest
Speaker Dr. Seiji M. Lippit
(University of California\, Los Angeles)
Thank you to everyone who attended! The recording can be viewed on YouTube via this link here.
https://youtu.be/MUsLiWZOpnw
Thursday\, November 17\, 2016
6:00pm Lecture
Location:
A
sian Centre Auditorium\, 1871 West Mall\, Vancouver
Free & open to the public.
Lecture ab stract:
In the aftermath of World War II\, the city of Tokyo lay in a state of devastation. The capital of what had once been a massive overseas empire was reduced to ruins by the unrelenting Allied aerial bomb ardment and now faced occupation by a foreign military power for the first time in the nation’s history. At the same time\, the city was also the site of a remarkable efflorescence of literature and culture in the immediate p ostwar period\, as intellectuals and artists\, many of them returning to th e city from the countryside or from overseas territories\, grappled with a simultaneous sense of immense loss and hopeful visions of the future. This talk examines ways in which the city of Tokyo—as both a material site and a s a space of representation—shaped one of the most productive periods in mo dern cultural history. It focuses in particular on Tokyo’s materialization of a core contradiction underlying the experience of this historical moment : the city embodied on the one hand a sense of radical historical rupture\, while\, at the same time\, it also framed the spectral return of the imper ial past\, which haunted the reconstruction of the city and the nation in t he years after the war. The talk will examine a number of recurrent themes and images in literature and popular culture\, including representations of the capital in ruins\, the city under occupation\, and the cultural space of the black markets.
About the speaker: 
About the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies:
< p>John Howes was a founding member of UBC’s Department of Asian Studies\, w hich he joined in 1961 after earning his doctorate from Columbia University . During his 30 years of active teaching and research\, Professor Howes was at the forefront of Canada-Japan cultural\, educational and people-to-peop le relations and inspired countless young Canadians to dedicate their caree rs and lives to the Canada-Japan relationship in one way or another. In 201 2\, a number of UBC faculty\, staff\, and Professor Howes’ devoted former s tudents came together to launch an endowment in his honour. The fund suppor ts the John Howes Lecture in Japanese Studies\, an annual pu blic lecture for prominent scholars from around the world to speak to the u niversity community and alumni on topics in Japanese Studies with a focus o n Humanities. Dr. Howes passed away peacefully on February 4th\, 2017\, at the age of 92. CATEGORIES:Featured Events,Featured Homepage,Featured Japanese LOCATION:Auditorium\, Asian Centre\, 1871 West Mall\, Vancouver GEO:49.266733;-123.258698 URL;VALUE=URI:https://asia.ubc.ca/events/event/2016-17-john-howes-lecture-i n-japanese-studies/ ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://asia.cms.arts.ubc.ca/wp-content/uploads/sites/18/2022/02/2016-John-Howes-Lecture-Digital-Signage.jpg END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Vancouver BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 DTSTART:20161106T090000 TZNAME:PST END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR