Kari Shepherdson-Scott, Macalester College, US
This talk examines how Japanese images published and exhibited during the 1930s provided idealized modes of seeing the Manchurian frontier in northeast Asia. Of particular interest are the ways in which these works (re)produced discourses rationalizing an expanding Japanese empire—a nod to the imperial institutions, such as the South Manchuria Railway Company and Manchuria Immigration Council, that sponsored their production—as well as functioned as highly aesthetic objects tied to individual artistic expression. The diversity of images produced testifies to the textual and artistic negotiation of multifarious, even contradictory, Japanese ideals projected onto Manchuria as a purported land of multi-ethnic harmony, peace, development, emptiness, timelessness, banditry, or military unrest.
Download the seminar poster here.
The University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 951 5845 email: jeremy.taylor@nottingham.ac.uk