In the modern age, Occidentalism as a system of representations based upon the notion of “the West” has played a hegemonic role in the configuration of collective identity and alterity. The imaginary geography of “the West” has been one of the most effective in inscribing the whole world and humanity along hierarchic and fluid lines of inclusion and exclusion, encompassing global relations of power in geopolitical contexts, as well as knowledge practices in geocultural spheres. In spite of post-colonial engagements aimed to de-naturalize the notions of “the West” and “the East”, little critical attentions has been paid so far to the inter-relational and complicit processes between Occidentalism and Orientalism. Referring to the gaze of the Japanese other as regards to “the West” and to “Italy” is not limited to a perspectival displacement within the broader discourse of Occidentalism. Most of all it is an attempt to illustrate of how the way “easterners” see “the West” (Occidentalism) is historically linked to the way of how the Euro-American perspective has been able to define “the East” (Orientalism) and impose this imaginary geography in order to determine the others’ own identification process (self-Orientalism). In this paper, I shall explore the sudden success of the made in Italy in Japan from the 1990s, which recently elevated Italy to the rank of the most attractive country in the world among Japanese women and youth. The prevailing image of Italy is mainly articulated as an ambivalent icon: a superior-seeming and ‘archetypical West’ based on the insistence of its antique and classical features (Roman Empire, Humanism, Renaissance), and at the same time, an inferior-seeming and ‘backward West’ based on the insistence of its pre-moderns aspects (history, gastronomy, fashion, landscapes, cheerful people, etc.). The popularity of this configuration suggests the strategic relevance of the Italian looking glass self which enables to mediate deep rooted and contradictory pro-western and anti-western tensions. It opens also to the issue of how these hetero-representations of Italy are intermingled with similar self-representations by Italian institutions in order to promote their own nation branding on the global market.

Italy Made in Japan: Occidentalism, Self-Orientalism, and Italianism in Contemporary Japan,

MIYAKE, Toshio
2012-01-01

Abstract

In the modern age, Occidentalism as a system of representations based upon the notion of “the West” has played a hegemonic role in the configuration of collective identity and alterity. The imaginary geography of “the West” has been one of the most effective in inscribing the whole world and humanity along hierarchic and fluid lines of inclusion and exclusion, encompassing global relations of power in geopolitical contexts, as well as knowledge practices in geocultural spheres. In spite of post-colonial engagements aimed to de-naturalize the notions of “the West” and “the East”, little critical attentions has been paid so far to the inter-relational and complicit processes between Occidentalism and Orientalism. Referring to the gaze of the Japanese other as regards to “the West” and to “Italy” is not limited to a perspectival displacement within the broader discourse of Occidentalism. Most of all it is an attempt to illustrate of how the way “easterners” see “the West” (Occidentalism) is historically linked to the way of how the Euro-American perspective has been able to define “the East” (Orientalism) and impose this imaginary geography in order to determine the others’ own identification process (self-Orientalism). In this paper, I shall explore the sudden success of the made in Italy in Japan from the 1990s, which recently elevated Italy to the rank of the most attractive country in the world among Japanese women and youth. The prevailing image of Italy is mainly articulated as an ambivalent icon: a superior-seeming and ‘archetypical West’ based on the insistence of its antique and classical features (Roman Empire, Humanism, Renaissance), and at the same time, an inferior-seeming and ‘backward West’ based on the insistence of its pre-moderns aspects (history, gastronomy, fashion, landscapes, cheerful people, etc.). The popularity of this configuration suggests the strategic relevance of the Italian looking glass self which enables to mediate deep rooted and contradictory pro-western and anti-western tensions. It opens also to the issue of how these hetero-representations of Italy are intermingled with similar self-representations by Italian institutions in order to promote their own nation branding on the global market.
2012
New Perspectives in Italian Cultural Studies, vol. 1 (ed. Parati, Graziella)
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/10278/3662228
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