A Predilection for Doubles, Doppelgangers and Dolls
Abstract: Sight has been called the primary sense of modern subjectivity, a privileging which is readily evident in instantaneous circulation of visual images across linguistic barriers today. A keen consciousness of the social effects of viewing and being viewed is already amply evident in early 20th century Japanese literature, with the growing thematization of the role of seeing in the novels of many prominent writers. In Japan, a corollary to this preoccupation with ocular experience was a fascination with the double, evidenced in the recurring images of doubles, doppelgangers and dolls that inhabit modern literature, particularly during the Taisho period, when photography and film technologies were gaining widespread popularity in the country. This lecture investigates this phenomenon.
Co-sponsors: Institute for Japanese Studies, East Asian Studies Center, Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and a U.S. Department of Education Title VI Grant.
