The body of the nation (國體)is a scandalous concept in modern Japanese history, for it discloses the formation of the ‘nation’ in the element of liberalism in Japan’s modernization. This talk aims to historicize ‘nationality,’ ‘ethnicity’ and ‘race’ in reference to the governmentality of the pastorate. In Japanese history, the pastoral power is best represented by the institution of the Emperor and, it will be argued that the national body and the institution of the Emperor have to be discussed in tandem.

Naoki Sakai is Professor of Comparative Literature and Asian Studies at Cornell University. Among his recent books is Translation, Biopolitics, Colonial Difference (2006) and Deconstructing Nationality (2005, with Brett de Bary and Toshio Iyotani). He is founding editor of the multilingual project TRACES.

Harry Harootunian, East Asia Studies and History, NYU, will be the discussant.

The Exporting Enlightenment Seminar is supported by the Humanities Initiative and the Institute for Public Knowledge at NYU, and directed by Harry Harootunian and Arvind Rajagopal.

This event is co-sponsored by The Humanities Initiative at NYU.

This event is open to the public with photo ID.