THE EXERCISE OF POWER AND AUTHORITY IN JAPANESE CULTURE

For this assignment, focus your attention on the various manifestations of “soft power” and “authority” discussed in the past several weeks in that portion of the course devoted to the study of various aspects of Japanese culture and civilization.

As you organize your thoughts into a coherent analytical narrative, keep in mind the following expectations: in your essay you should demonstrate and document --

• an ability to define appropriately and apply the various concepts introduced in the initial portion of the course (hard power / soft power / authority / influence, modernization / westernization / tradition, gemeinschaft / gesellschaft, western / nonwestern / third world) to an analysis of a specific aspect of Japanese life and culture with reference to issues around the subject of the uses of “power” and “authority” in nonwestern societies.
  
  Ask yourself the following question: “Does this essay show I can thoughtfully analyze (not merely describe) with insight and understanding some specific aspect (or aspects) of “power” and / or “authority” operating within Japanese society and culture?”
   
• completion of the assigned reading for this portion of the course (and those preceding in the introductory section, as needed) through specific references and concrete examples and illustrations drawn directly from this material (as noted in accompanying annotation).
  
  Ask yourself the following question: “In reading this analysis, will the grading instructor know (through specific references contained in the essay and the accompanying bibliography of sources cited) that I have completed and understood the assigned reading for the course?”
   
• understanding and comprehension of the various ideas covered in class around the issues discussed in your analysis (again, as specifically documented in your accompanying annotation).
  
  Ask yourself the following question: “Does this essay show I have attended class, paid attention and understood what was being conveyed in these discussions and presentations?”

With these criteria in mind, you are free to develop your analysis in any manner you choose. The following paragraphs discuss various approaches you might consider. If, after reading through them, you still are uncertain about how best to proceed, speak with the instructor (Professor Makela, not Dr. Tan) for some additional help and guidance.

• How does traditional Japanese poetry gain the influence this literary form eventually possesses? How does this process illustrate the impact of “change and development over time within a cultural tradition” that serves to define an aspect of “modernization” at work within the context of very early Japanese history? In what ways does this process contribute to the emergence of a gemeinschaft cultural orientation in Japan?
  
  Does the “soft power” and “authority” thereby gained by the Japanese poetic tradition remain forever unchallenged, imposing itself successfully thereafter on a reluctant population, or is this “authority” eventually challenged and subverted by the “modernization” process at work? Does “westernization: play a role here?
   
• In what specific ways are characteristics of the cultural "soft power" and "authority" later to be granted The Tale of Genji itself (as a culturally-significant work of literature and source of cultural metaphor, allusion and symbolism) prefigured within the novel itself (as evidenced in the assigned reading "Evening Faces")?
  
  That is, in what ways is the cultural basis for the use of The Tale of Genji as a significant resource of cultural "soft power" and "authority" found to be already in existence at the time the original novel itself was written?
   
• Over the centuries which follow how is the "power" and "authority" initially gained by The Tale of Genji "modernized -- that is, enlarged, changed and challenged -- in specific works of art from later historical epochs while still maintaining its original "power" and "authority" as a work of literature?
  
  How do these later works of art reflect the "power" and "authority" vested in mitate traditions? How do these mitate references work to maintain the cultural “soft power” and “authority” vested in tradition yet also allow variations and new ingredients to be incorporated commenting on or reflecting issues of more immediate concern to the creating artist?
   
• How is “modernization” and “westernization” reflected today in the poetry of Tawara Machi (as evidenced in the assigned examples of her poetry) and the woodblock prints of Masami Teraoka to make use of accepted sources of traditional cultural "soft power" and "authority" to advance new ideas or initiate a more contemporary manifestation of traditional values and voices?
  
  Comment on ways in which you see the influence of the cultural power and authority of past tradition present in these works and ways in which these artists use this traditional power and authority to convey very contemporary artistic intentions.