- Convenor:
-
Ken Hagiwara
(Meiji University)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Edwin Michielsen
(The University of Hong Kong)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Interdisciplinary Section: Trans-Regional Studies (East/Northeast/Southeast Asia)
Short Abstract
This panel explores the rise and fall of Japan's proletarian cultural movement, along with its (represented) spaces. It examines multilingual workers’ theater, language education media for the proletariat, as well as the novellas that criticized the East Asian Community discourse in Korea.
Long Abstract
This panel will explore the rise and fall of Japan's proletarian cultural movement during the interwar period, along with its physical and represented spheres and spaces. The examination will focus on the fields of theater, language, and literature.
Hagiwara will undertake an exploration of the works of Senda Koreya, a Japanese actor and director. Senda resided in Germany circa 1930, engaging in the study of workers' theatre and creating performances for agitprop troupes whose members came from various backgrounds. He then applied his experience in Japan, sometimes with agitprop troupes consisting of people with Korean descent. Senda's activities demonstrate the multicultural nature of the sphere of workers' theatre.
Kamimura's presentation will focus on the concept of language as manifested in proletarian educational media. These media, designed to encourage children to engage in a proletarian revolution while criticizing imperialism, saw active involvement from proletarian writers and Esperantists. These initiatives, which included activities such as composition and debate, as well as theater and Esperanto courses, aimed to cultivate children's linguistic environment and foster a sense of international solidarity.
Lee will finally explore the spaces described in the Korean-language novellas of Kim Namcheon, circa 1940. As a former key figure of the Korean proletarian cultural movement, Kim provided a critical perspective on the ‘East Asian Community’ discourse and the conversion policy in colonial Korea. Lee will focus on the space of a particular apartment building in Keijo (modern-day Seoul) depicted in the novellas, as a symbolic space where these complex ideologies intersected.
The interwar proletarian cultural movement in Japan developed within the context of the colonial policies of the Empire of Japan, unfolding while keeping in view its multicultural and multilingual reality. Within it were people who oscillated between different cultures and languages, holding up the ideal of a world where all people could understand one another. This panel seeks to imagine the spaces they lived in or envisioned, in the city of Poznań/Posen — a city that likewise oscillated between the cultures and languages of Poland and Germany.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
Senda Koreya resided in Germany ca.1930, engaging with workers' theater consisting of individuals from diverse backgrounds after the fall of the German Empire. Upon returning to the Japanese Empire, he engaged with individuals of Korean descent, applying the knowledge he had gained as an outsider.
Paper long abstract
Senda Koreya, an actor and director, resided in Berlin, Germany from 1927 to 1931 to pursue studies in workers' theater. At that time, Germany was a republic, and its population was composed of individuals from a variety of backgrounds. In essence, these origins can be categorized into two distinct classifications: those stemming from the republic itself and those outside its territorial boundaries. The term "outside" in this context specifically refers to the territories which the former German Empire abandoned in 1919, primarily regions within continental Europe, such as parts of the newly formed Poland, including Poznań, and secondarily the former colonies outside continental Europe.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the agitprop theater performed by workers in Germany at that time, in which Senda participated, undoubtedly featured diverse backgrounds among both creators and audiences. In light of the fact that the background was likely of minimal significance, the Berlin creators proactively welcomed and collaborated with Senda, an outsider. In this setting, productions with anti-colonialist content were staged, including "Revue Imperialismus" (Revue Imperialism, 1929).
Subsequent to this experience, Senda returned to Japan and engaged in agitprop theater as an insider, often collaborating with individuals of Korean descent under the imperial regime. While his stage name itself signified solidarity with Koreans, it is also reasonable to assume that his experiences as an outsider in Germany played a definite role in his following agitprop theater activities with people of Korean descent after returning to Japan.
Paper short abstract
This presentation focuses on language education within the Proletarian Cultural Movement of the 1930s. It specifically examines the activities of Esperantist OKA Kazuta, who ideologically linked Proletarian Children's Education with the Esperanto movement.
Paper long abstract
The concept of “proletarian culture,” introduced to Japan in the early 1920s, was adopted by intellectuals to relativize the Imperial Japanese educational system. It subsequently crystallized into the Proletarian Culture Movement, which systematically organized activities aimed at communist revolution and international solidarity. Traditionally, research on this movement has focused primarily on studies of proletarian literature. Even recent research trends remain confined within the framework of the cultural movement as an artistic movement.
However, because educational perspectives drove the reception of proletarian culture among intellectuals, and because the movement's purpose was to enlighten the masses and guide them to become subjects of class struggle, research into this movement necessitates a deeper examination of its educational dimensions.
Examining proletarian children's educational media reveals the active involvement of prominent proletarian writers and Esperantists. They provided children with reading materials that fostered anti-imperialist and revolutionary consciousness, critiqued racism and xenophobia, and promoted international solidarity. They also encouraged self-expression through essay submissions and discussions. Furthermore, through initiatives like Esperanto courses and crossword puzzles, they sought to stimulate and expand children's linguistic environments.
This presentation analyzes these media to explore perspectives on children's education and enlightenment methods within the proletarian cultural movement. It particularly aims to shed light on the activities of Esperantist OKA Kazuta, who ideologically linked proletarian children's education with the Esperanto movement. He served as the selector for the Japan special issue of the international Esperanto magazine Infanoj sur Tutmondo (Children of the World), published in Paris just before World War II. Furthermore, even after the war, he continued his activities as a bridge between children's literature and Esperanto's philosophy of peace, publishing the Esperanto children's play Under the Green Flag, set in German-occupied Warsaw.
In an era where the diversification of information complicates linguistic functions, the world faces grave challenges: the resurgence of imperialism, xenophobia, and the advent of a new century of war. This presentation aims to offer a relative perspective on such circumstances.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 1920年代初頭に日本に伝来した「プロレタリア文化」の概念は、帝国日本の教育制度を相対化するために知識人層に取り入れられ、その後、共産主義革命と国際連帯を目指す活動を体系的に組織化したプロレタリア文化運動として結晶化した。従来、この運動に関する研究の主眼はプロレタリア文学研究に置かれてきたが、近年の研究動向もなお、芸術運動としての文化運動の枠組み内に留まっているのが現状である。 しかし、プロレタリア文化の受容が知識人によって教育的観点からなされたこと、そして、運動の目的が、大衆を啓蒙し階級闘争の主体となりうるように教え導くことにあったことから、この運動を研究する際には、教育的側面の検討をより深める必要があろう。 ところで、児童向けのプロレタリア教育メディアを検証すると、著名なプロレタリア作家やエスペランティストの積極的な関与が浮かび上がる。彼らは、反帝国主義や革命意識の育成および、人種差別や排外主義を批判し国際的連帯を推進する読み物を子ども達に提供するほか、作文投稿や討論を通じた自己表現を促していた。さらにエスペラント講座やクロスワードパズルなどの企画を通じて、子どもたちの言語環境を刺激し、拡大することを試みている。 本発表では、プロレタリア文化運動における児童教育の視点と啓蒙手法を探るため、これらのメディアを分析する。特に、プロレタリア児童教育とエスペラント運動を思想的に結びつけたエスペランティストである岡一太の活動に光をあてたい。彼は第二次世界大戦直前にパリで刊行された国際エスペラント誌『世界の子供たち』日本特集号の選者であった。さらに戦後も、ドイツ占領下のワルシャワを舞台としたエスペラント児童劇「緑の旗の下に」を出版するなど、児童文学とエスペラントの平和思想の架け橋としての活動を継続した。 情報の多様化が言語機能を複雑化させる時代において、帝国主義の復活、排外主義、新たな戦争の世紀の到来という重大な課題に世界は直面している。本発表はこうした状況に対する相対的な視座を提供することを目的とする。 |
Paper short abstract
This presentation analyzes Kim Namcheon’s novellas to examine how he critiques the East Asian Community discourse that emerged in the midst of the Asia-Pacific War, and discusses Kim’s historical perception in symbolizing the transitional time and space of colonial Korea with an apartment building.
Paper long abstract
Around 1938, as the Second Sino-Japanese War bogged down, discourses became prevalent among Japanese intellectuals that justified the war as a means to liberate Asia from Western modern oppression and to establish the "Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" under the Japanese leadership. Since the rhetoric of the "Greater East Asia Community" promised a future of mutual prosperity for all participating ethnic groups, it was seized upon by certain intellectuals in colonial Korea as well. They lent their support to the war effort, framing it as a transformative opportunity for Korea to transcend its colonial identity and achieve a new status alongside Japan.
This presentation examines how the “East Asian Community” discourse is critiqued in Kim Namcheon’s series of novellas, "Management" (Gyeong-yeong, 1940) and "Barley" (Maek, 1941). Set in an apartment building in Seoul, which was emerged in the 1930s as a new form of urban housing for single residents, the series juxtaposes two contrasting views on the “East Asian Community” discourse. Specifically, it explores the Japanese philosopher Koyama Iwao's pluralistic view of Eastern history through dialogues between the female protagonist who works as the building’s manager and the two male characters who move in.
Kim Namcheon, who was active in the proletarian cultural movement in colonial Korea, established his literary career following the movement’s dissolution in the mid-1930s. In this series of novellas, Kim employs the theme of Tenkō (ideological conversion) within a judicial setting to reveal how the “East Asian Community” discourse functioned coercively in colonial Korea. He exposes the realization that the discourse, which many Korean intellectuals supported for its promise of equal coexistence, was ultimately a deception.
Following the above analysis, I will proceed to compare the structure of the apartment building in the novellas with that of Yamatojuku, a rehabilitation center for ideological offenders where Kim entered shortly after the series' publication. By examining the center’s apartment-like structure as a space representing totalitarian thought control, I will discuss Kim’s historical consciousness in choosing the apartment building as a site that symbolizes the transitional time and space of colonial Korea in the midst of the Asia-Pacific War.