Open Talk “Co-Reading Edo Supernatural and Medical Discourse through Asai Ryōi’s “The Peony Lantern.””
In our current period, the two fields of medicine and supernatural literature (kaidan) are usually placed on two ends of a spectrum of rationality, with supernatural literature seen as embodying the irrational and illogical aspects of human beliefs and knowledge. Nevertheless, this strict separation was not always the case in human history. In this short lecture, Professor Lee will seek to touch upon the basic concepts of Sinitic medicine while reading with everyone Asai Ryōiʼs famous tale of “The Peony Lantern”. He hopes to show that Asai Ryōiʼs tale was an attempt to inform people of the medical risks of the supernatural. He will then situate his tale in the broader history of medical discourse.
- Day & Time：June 21st, 2024 (Friday), 14:00-15:00
- Venue：Lab (2nd floor of WIHL)
- Language：Japanese
- Participation：Free
- Participants：Students, Faculty and Public
- Presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with support from the Waseda International House of Literature
Lecture
Clarence I-Zhuen Lee
After receiving his Ph.D. from Cornell Universityʼs Department of Asian Studies in 2018, he was hired as an Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of Colorado- Boulder before becoming a Visiting Research Scholar at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Kyoto) in 2022. Since 2024, he has been an associate professor of Japanese history at the International College of Liberal Arts, Yamanashi Gakuin University. His research focuses on early modern Japanese medical history and intellectual history, with an eye on modern and contemporary body politics.
Facilitator
Yi Dan
Yanai Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Contact
Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities: [email protected]
