As part of our on-going partnership with The University of Edinburgh, we are proud to support the next talk in their Asian Studies Seminar Series, "Theory and Film in the Political Reconstruction of Post-War Japan" with Dr Ferran de Vargas.

In the first decades after World War II, one of the most important questions in Japan was what could be done to prevent authoritarian powers from leading the people into another disastrous conflict. This question implied the need to understand the antidemocratic past in order to build a new future of freedom and social justice.

This talk first explores how different interpretations from three great left-wing ideological spheres arose from the endeavour to address this key issue. Orthodox Marxism focused on the economic structure of Japan in terms of the oppressive relations of production between social classes. Liberal progressivism focused instead on the social-cultural superstructure, especially regarding the allegedly irrational relationship between the individual and the collective. Finally, the New Left tended to see the subjective feeling of social alienation generated by the rapid development of capitalist modernity as the core of the problem.

After presenting the most representative theories of these ideological spheres, the talk will address how post-war Japanese cinema, through the example of specific films, conveyed these debates beyond intellectual circles to the general public.

This talk will first present three left-wing ideological spheres that arose in post-war Japan, to address the question of what could be done to prevent authoritarian powers from leading people into another disastrous conflict. Then, it will explore how these ideas were conveyed, via cinema, to the general public.

This event is free to attend and no booking is required. Just turn up!

For more information, click here.