The Anglo-Japanese Productions of Minakata Kumagusu
LOST IN TRANSLATION: Non-Linear Literary, Cultural, Temporal, Political, and Cosmological Transformations – the Anglo-Japanese Productions of Minakata Kumagusu by Frederick Alan Little A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Division of Global Affairs written under the direction of Associate Professor Eva Giloi and approved by _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ _________________________________ Newark, New Jersey May, 2012 ©2011 Frederick Alan Little ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION LOST IN TRANSLATION: Non-Linear Literary, Cultural, Temporal, Political, and Cosmological Transformations – the Anglo-Japanese Productions of Minakata Kumagusu by Frederick Alan Little Dissertation Director: Associate Professor Eva Giloi Naturalist, translator, littérateur, and political activist, Minakata Kumagusu, in his many endeavors, offers an intriguing series of parallelisms with patterns of non-linear development and network relationships found in the field of study that was his primary focus: botany, more specifically mycology. In contrast to models of cultural and political development imported from the West during the Meiji Restoration and extended during the Showa and Taisho eras, and the strong orientation toward centralized vertical hierarchy that in Japanese culture and governance of that period, Minakata offers an understanding in terms of dispersed non-linear networks. As botanist, folklorist, and environmental activist, Minakata refused engagement with academic and governmental institutions, conducting his life and work in the remote Kii Peninsuala. In doing so, he engaged with a variety of significant horizontal networks: elite aristocratic networks, demotic press networks, ascent pan-Asian political networks, domestic folkloric and literary networks, and international intellectual networks.
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