“The Body in Modern Japanese Theater” Lecture by M. Cody Poulton, University of Victoria

Lecture information:
Theater is a performance art that almost by definition requires the presentation of living human bodies enacting an event or series of actions before a live audience. In a fundamental sense, as an art form it is the word made flesh. But the relationship between language and the body was problematized by the process of modernity or modernization, especially in Japan, where the models all came from the West. It was one thing to translate or even emulate the Western novel, for example. But to present Japanese actors on stage as Europeans, or as people transformed by Westernization, involved a process that denaturalized both the text and those who acted it out. How, physically, does one express the experience of living in the modern world? And how does that expression change over the course of time?

This presentation will examine how theater over the past century in Japan has reflected fundamental changes in artistic practice and conceptions of personal and social identity through physical appearance and action. It will cover a wide range of work, from early 20th century to contemporary theater and discuss a number of genres, performers and topics such as: the relationship between text and performance, Japanese and Western bodies, tradition and modernity in theatrical training, butoh, and modern dance. The lecture will use a Powerpoint slideshow and video images to illustrate a selection of different works and genres.

Lecturer information:
Cody Poulton is Professor of Japanese literature and theater and Chair of the Department of Pacific and Asian Studies, University of Victoria, Canada. His books include Spirits of Another Sort: The Plays of Izumi Kyôka (Michigan Monographs in Japanese Studies, 2001) and the forthcoming A Beggar’s Art: Scripting Modernity in Japanese Drama, 1900-1930 (University of Hawaii Press, 2010). His translations span from kabuki to contemporary, including work by Kara Jûrô, Betsuyaku Minoru, and Hirata Oriza. He is currently working with his co-editors J. Thomas Rimer and Mitsuya Mori on The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Drama.