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Overview
Constructing Subjectivities addresses the relationship between memory and modernity and its relevance to Japanese autobiographical texts. Tomonari construes autobiographies as embodying memory in modernity, and regards the conditions of modernity as having determined, in part, the shape of autobiographical texts. At the same time, however, he argues that Japanese autobiographies were not simply bound to the cultural and social norms of the time, but rather that the texts themselves were among the main agents of fostering Japanese modernity. The autobiographies he discusses served to initiate certain societal transitions and took part in the remaking of social norms and conventions. According to Constructing Subjectivities, mnemonic texts were crucial to the construction of modern ideological discourses such as those on the self, the family, entrepreneurship, the roles of women, and the nation. The study of this discursive process enables us to understand how the Japanese themselves tried to control the form of modernity that materialized in Japan. Because autobiography constructed and embodied collective memory at this time, analyzing the discursive process is also crucial to understanding both contemporary Japan and the self-perception of the Japanese people.
Synopsis
Constructing Subjectivities discusses some of the major autobiographies that appeared in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japan. Tomonari connects their emergence to the social transformation taking place at the time: the modernization and industrialization of Japan. Focusing on particular groups such as wealthy peasants, newly emerging businessmen, social activists, and feminist intellectuals, Tomonari positions the autobiographies as part of the social reform their authors were trying to carry out.