The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty
Subaltern studies has overwhelmingly privileged subaltern resistance as a means for the subaltern to attain autonomy. While the group's project has made breakthroughs in rewriting Indian subaltern history, their emphasis on resistance to oppression has also essentialized what it means to create...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Others |
Published: |
BYU ScholarsArchive
2008
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1520 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2519&context=etd |
id |
ndltd-BGMYU2-oai-scholarsarchive.byu.edu-etd-2519 |
---|---|
record_format |
oai_dc |
spelling |
ndltd-BGMYU2-oai-scholarsarchive.byu.edu-etd-25192019-05-16T03:33:23Z The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty Jeppsen, Rachel Subaltern studies has overwhelmingly privileged subaltern resistance as a means for the subaltern to attain autonomy. While the group's project has made breakthroughs in rewriting Indian subaltern history, their emphasis on resistance to oppression has also essentialized what it means to create autonomy. A 1999 novel, Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty, challenges this essentialist view by portraying alternative behaviors that indicate autonomy. The novel is set in 1920s Japan when transnational excitement and anxiety provided opportunities for one subaltern group, Japanese women, to gain autonomy. While some feminist movements in Japan substantiate the notion that autonomy must be gained through rebellion, The Strangeness of Beauty suggests that this is merely one possible method for gaining autonomy—and an undesirable method at that. The relationships among three women—a mother, daughter, and granddaughter—emphasize that both the elite and subaltern can do more than just oppress or rebel to express autonomy. Rather than responding to the other antagonistically, the characters in The Strangeness of Beauty indicate that autonomy can best be reached through beneficent acts toward the other. I hope to demonstrate that these beneficent acts also foster autonomy. Because resistance and beneficence widen the spectrum of behaviors that foster autonomy, subaltern studies must identify new spheres of autonomy and enact a non-essentializing beneficence in their methodology. 2008-07-17T07:00:00Z text application/pdf https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1520 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2519&context=etd http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/ All Theses and Dissertations BYU ScholarsArchive subaltern studies japanese feminism elite subaltern hierarchy domination japan 1920s feminism resistance rebellion English Language and Literature |
collection |
NDLTD |
format |
Others
|
sources |
NDLTD |
topic |
subaltern studies japanese feminism elite subaltern hierarchy domination japan 1920s feminism resistance rebellion English Language and Literature |
spellingShingle |
subaltern studies japanese feminism elite subaltern hierarchy domination japan 1920s feminism resistance rebellion English Language and Literature Jeppsen, Rachel The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
description |
Subaltern studies has overwhelmingly privileged subaltern resistance as a means for the subaltern to attain autonomy. While the group's project has made breakthroughs in rewriting Indian subaltern history, their emphasis on resistance to oppression has also essentialized what it means to create autonomy. A 1999 novel, Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty, challenges this essentialist view by portraying alternative behaviors that indicate autonomy. The novel is set in 1920s Japan when transnational excitement and anxiety provided opportunities for one subaltern group, Japanese women, to gain autonomy. While some feminist movements in Japan substantiate the notion that autonomy must be gained through rebellion, The Strangeness of Beauty suggests that this is merely one possible method for gaining autonomy—and an undesirable method at that. The relationships among three women—a mother, daughter, and granddaughter—emphasize that both the elite and subaltern can do more than just oppress or rebel to express autonomy. Rather than responding to the other antagonistically, the characters in The Strangeness of Beauty indicate that autonomy can best be reached through beneficent acts toward the other. I hope to demonstrate that these beneficent acts also foster autonomy. Because resistance and beneficence widen the spectrum of behaviors that foster autonomy, subaltern studies must identify new spheres of autonomy and enact a non-essentializing beneficence in their methodology. |
author |
Jeppsen, Rachel |
author_facet |
Jeppsen, Rachel |
author_sort |
Jeppsen, Rachel |
title |
The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
title_short |
The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
title_full |
The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
title_fullStr |
The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Compatibility of Containment and Autonomy in Lydia Minatoya's The Strangeness of Beauty |
title_sort |
compatibility of containment and autonomy in lydia minatoya's the strangeness of beauty |
publisher |
BYU ScholarsArchive |
publishDate |
2008 |
url |
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1520 https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2519&context=etd |
work_keys_str_mv |
AT jeppsenrachel thecompatibilityofcontainmentandautonomyinlydiaminatoyasthestrangenessofbeauty AT jeppsenrachel compatibilityofcontainmentandautonomyinlydiaminatoyasthestrangenessofbeauty |
_version_ |
1719186701529645056 |