Takeuchi Yoshimi's Philosophy of History
A talk by Sun Ge (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
Wednesday, May 17, 2006
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
11377 Bunche Hall
UCLA
Takeuchi Yoshimi (1910-1977), was a noted scholar of Chinese literature and culture and a major leftist critic of Japan's postwar generation. His writings cover a vast range of subjects, extending from Lu Xun to China's controversial nuclear testing in 1964. The structure of his thinking is similar to that of Walter Benjamin in that they both reflect upon how to enter into history, how to establish the relationship between history and reality, while confronting the bloody violence of the twentieth century and pondering the fundamental issue of existence from a non-philosophical perspective. Like Benjamin, Takeuchi's philosophy of history is "anti-philosopical." Studying Takeuchi's philosophy of history takes us, therefore, to a critical consideration of East Asian historical condition and not to abstract philosophical argumentation. This lecture will take Takeuchi's What is Modernity? as the focal point to tease out the important implications of his philosophy of history.
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Sun Ge is a Research Professor and the Assistant Director of the Research Group in the Comparative Literature Group at the Literature Research Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences. She graduated from the Department of Chinese Literature at Jilin University, and, in 2003, obtained a Ph.D. in politics and law from Tokyo Metropolitan University. Among her publications are Guo wai Zhongguo gu dian xiqu yanjiu (Research on Chinese Classical Opera Performed Overseas) (co-authored; Jiangsu jiaoyu chubanshe, 2000), Yazhou yi wei zhe shenme: Wenhua jian de Riben (What Does Asia Mean? Japan's Cultural Space) (Juliu tushu gongsi, 2001), Ajia o kataru koto no jirenma: Chi no kyôdô kûkan o motomete (The Dilemma of Speaking of Asia) (Iwanami shoten, 2001); Zhunei Hao de beilun (The Paradox of Takeuchi Yoshimi) (Bejing daxue chubanshe, 2005); and Takeuchi Yoshimi to iu toi (The Question of Takeuchi Yoshimi) (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 2005).
Dr. Sun's lecture will be in Chinese
For more information please contact
Richard Gunde
Tel: 310 825-8683
Sponsor(s): Center for Chinese Studies
