SHUM 4989 - Sovereignty under Military Occupation

(crosslisted)
(also ASIAN 4496, COML 4024, GOVT 4656)

Spring. 4 credits.

Enrollment limited to: 15 students.

A. Shimabuku.

After touching upon the American “failure” in Iraq, this seminar uncovers the secret of what has been canonized in American history as a model of “success”-the Allied occupation of Japan-by probing into the metaphysical and performative aspects of sovereignty, examining the role of the globalized economy plays under occupation, and reconsidering Euro-centric notions of the postcolonial so as to appreciate the U.S. military’s renewal of Japanese imperial formations in the postwar era. We will read from Walter Benjamin, Judith Butler, Leo Ching, Grace Cho, Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Hardt/Negri, Chalmers Johnson, Immanuel Kant, Medoruma Shun, Naoki Sakai, Sakiyama Tami, and Carl Schmitt.