Enrico Fongaro – författare

Furusato (home, hometown, and/or place of origin) is a revered and idealized concept in Japan. On an individual level, it plays a central role in personal identity; in a broader social and cultural milieu, it is constitutive of a sense of nostalgia for a romanticized and impossible past; and in the political and legal realms, it connects with ideas of Japaneseness and the construction of foreign others. While the specific forms it takes in context provide a Japanese veneer to the idea of furusato, it in fact finds close analogues in ideas of ‘home’ and ‘origin’ around the world. This volume collects essays exploring furusato and its cognates in other languages and regions. 14 scholars from Japan and Europe employ a diverse array of disciplinary tools, drawing from history, philosophy, literature, anthropology, religious studies, and art history, to map out the contours of home and elucidate the meanings contained within it.

How is one to learn in a time of globalization? And in particular: how is one to learn if the research “object” is a non-European culture, such as that of Japan? What are the methodologies appropriate for working in the field of “Nippon/Japan” in a bi-directional approach from West to East and from East to West? Based on an interdisciplinary and intercultural orientation, specialists from Europe and Japan analyze topics focusing on History, Philosophy, Aesthetics, Literature, Linguistics, Sociology, Economics and Religious Studies.