The Departing Body: Creation of the Neutral in-between Sensual Bodies

Authors

  • Fusako Innami

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2011.15.3.111-130

Keywords:

space-in-between, selfhood, sensual and sexual, passivity, skinship

Abstract

This paper investigates the Japanese concept of ma/aida, the space in-between, discussed by French author Roland Barthes as the Neutral, not signifying the medium of the opposite poles but the bare existence. It first analyzes how the discourse of contiguous relationships and the space between others has functioned in modern and postwar Japan, and further employs the works of the Japanese female writer Matsuura Rieko as counterexamples,
with particular emphasis on the space between the sensual and the sexual. It provides a fresh view on the conceptions of space and indirectness between and within the body.

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Author Biography

  • Fusako Innami
    Fusako Innami, St. Antony’s College, DPhil candidate in Oriental Studies, Oriental Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford.

References

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Published

1. 12. 2011

Issue

Section

Past Inspirations and Present Explorations

How to Cite

Innami, Fusako. 2011. “The Departing Body: Creation of the Neutral in-Between Sensual Bodies”. Asian Studies 15 (3): 111-30. https://doi.org/10.4312/as.2011.15.3.111-130.