Chapter 1: The Power in the Story Trouillot mentions how we participate in history both as actors and narrators. For him, history means both 'what happened' and 'what is said to have happened'. The former suggests the sociohistorical process, while the latter speaks about our knowledge of that process. He further mentions how there are... Continue Reading →
Japan and Power: Kawaii is Power!
Scholars since the late 20th century have been much interested with the concept of kawaii. We have come to a point in which the term is not only attractive to scholars of Japanese Studies but most people around the world, who have inevitably been in contact with products that inhabit the concept. But what exactly... Continue Reading →
Japan and Power: A Perfect Fit for Modernity
Japan, an imperial power in history, has gone through various transformations in many areas such as economics, politics, consumerism, popular culture etc. And such transformations have surely changed Japan’s influence in the world after World War Two. Among the areas of vast transformations and novelties that Japan has gone through, I am particularly interested in... Continue Reading →
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison / Michel Foucault
What is now imposed on penal justice as its point of application, its ‘useful’ object, will no longer be the body of the guilty man set up against the body of the king; nor will it be the juridical subject of an ideal contract; it will be the disciplinary individual. The extreme point of penal... Continue Reading →
‘Age’, a Product of Modernity
If you ask the question "what is the age of consent?", the most reasonable answer, perhaps, would be: "it depends". Because, as can be seen, the age of consent varies a lot around the world. Therefore, there is no universal understanding of what the age of consent should be. Taking it a step further, further... Continue Reading →