Elia dal Corso (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice).

The Ainu language through the eyes of explorers and documenters

 “Strange”, “exotic”, “legendary” these are just a few of the various empty terms with which the Ainu have been referred to through history. In this talk, we will approach the issue of defining “Ainuness” from the outside: that is, by looking at how the West and Japan first encountered the Ainu. Delving into the more or less accurate, seldom casual, often short-sighted accounts that started appearing in the 17^th Century gives us the chance to understand how this romantic perception of the Ainu people has come to be and to realize how difficult it can be to demolish this perception from the inside. In light of this, particular attention will be given to discussing what appear to be the main stances towards the definition and expression of “Ainuness” within the communities that today live in Japan.

Bio

Elia Dal Corso (PhD linguistics, SOAS University of London) is a researcher in Ainu language and linguistics at the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice. He is a specialist in the Sakhalin variety of Ainu. His research focuses on the description of the verbal and nominal systems of the language, towards which he takes a chiefly typological stance. Given the vitality status of Sakhalin Ainu, Elia conducts his descriptive work through the philological study of legacy materials from the first half of the 20th Century.

Blai Guarné  (Autonomous University of Barcelona).  

Identity at stake: cultural reappropriation and Japanese social visibility in Spanish urban space

In recent years, the Japanese community in Catalonia has undergone a radical demographic transformation. The historical presence of business executives assigned by Japanese companies has given way to the arrival of new migrants driven by personal mobility and lifestyle projects. This phenomenon has occurred alongside the growing visibility of the Japanese presence in the public sphere, through commercial establishments, consumer products, and cultural festivals, among which the "Matsuri Barcelona" celebration stands out. Based on ethnographic data, this lecture will analyse the complex overlap of discourses and practices that emerge in these types of celebrations, in a process of constant negotiation between Japanese residents, local actors, mangaanime conventions, and cultural festivals, which has turned the question of who is legitimately authorized to represent Japanese culture into a contested arena.

Bio

Dr. Blai Guarné is professor of Japanese anthropology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), where he directs the Center for Studies and Research on East Asia (CERAO) and coordinates the Master's Program in Global East Asian Studies (MUEGAO). He has been a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Anthropology at Stanford University (USA) and a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), and the National Museum of Ethnology in Japan (Minpaku). He is the PI of GREGAL research group: Cultural Circulation Japan-Korea-Catalonia/Spain at the UAB, as well as the director of the Japanese Studies Library (CERAO-Bellaterra) publishing series. His research focuses on the study of cultural nationalism and identity politics in globalized Japan. His publications include the books Antropología de Japón. Identidad, discurso y representación (Bellaterra, 2017), Escaping Japan: Reflections on Estrangement and Exile in the XXI-Century (Routledge, 2018), Persistently Postwar: Media and the Politics of Memory in Japan (Berghahn Books, 2019).

Funded by:

• Eurasia Foundation (from Asia)

In partnership with:

• Vicerectorat d’Internacionalització i Multilingüisme de la Universitat de València
• Departament de Teoria dels Llenguatges i Ciències de la Comunicació
• Institut Universitari de la Creativitat i Innovacions Educatives (IUCIE)
• Unitat d’Investigació Japón -Universitat de València (UIJ-UV)