Mr. Timothy Goddard (UCLA), who studies at the University of Tokyo with Fulbright scholarship, gave a talk on the city of Tokyo and its aesthetic dimensions.

[Mr. Goddard's report on his talk]
In my presentation to the University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy on June 23, 2010, I discussed the representation of urban space in the essays of Nagai Kafū (1879–1959) and Zhou Zuoren (1885–1967). I argued that these authors shared an appreciation for the affective and aesthetic dimensions of the city, and I used the concept of strolling to convey their common sensibility. I directed my attention to Kafū’s 1915 essay collection, Fair-Weather Geta, and to several of Zhou’s essays from the mid-1930s, including “An Account of Strolls in Tokyo” (1935) and “Yearning for Tokyo” (1936). As I revise my work, I will investigate more fully the points of similarity and difference between the spatial practices of Kafū and those of the flâneur in nineteenth-century France. By historicizing the negotiations of urban space in early twentieth-century Tokyo, I hope to highlight the local modes of urban negotiation specific to that time and place. I also intend to explore the relationship between personal memory and contemporary reality, expressed most vividly in Kafū’s movement through and reflections on the city. Finally, I will seek to position my analysis within the broader discursive context of modernity, commodification, and imperialism that defined the development of Tokyo in these years. In this manner, I hope to express with greater precision the significance that may be ascribed to the individual walking and writing of the city.
(Timothy Goddard)