Lexington Books
Pages: 190
Trim: 6½ x 9½
978-0-7391-3068-1 • Hardback • September 2009 • $98.00 • (£65.00)
Thorsten Botz-Bornstein is assistant professor of philosophy at Gulf University for Science and Technology in Kuwait.
Chapter 1: The Historical Foundations of Russian and Japanese Philosophies
Chapter 2: Space in Noh-Plays and Icons
Chapter 3: Models of Cultural Space Derived from NISHIDA Kitaro and Semën L. Frank (basho and sobornost')
Chapter 4: Space and Aesthetics: A Dialogue Between NISHIDA Kitaro and Mikhail Bakhtin
Chapter 5: From Community to Time-Space- Development: Trubetzkoy, Nishida, Watsuji
Chapter 6 Conclusion
Chapter 7 Postface: Resistance- and Slave Nations
This erudite, expansive book undertakes a study of convergences–as distinct from comparisons– between the aesthetic manifestations and political implications of Russian and Japanese philosophies of space. . . . Aesthetics and Politics of Space is a generative example of recent scholarship engaged in repositioning both Russian and East Asian studies in a dynamic inter-Asian field of comparison or "convergence," to use Botz-Bornstein's own term.
— Slavic and East European Journal
An intellectual tour-de-force, Aesthetics and Politics of Space in Russia and Japan succeeds admirably on several fronts, including its presentation of the first sustained comparison of philosophies from Japan and Russia and the introduction of Botz-Bornstein's original concept of "convergence" as a convincing countermeasure to the facile critiques that modern scholars have often leveled against the alleged "totalitarianism" of major Japanese and Russian thinkers. This is a work of philosophy as well as on philosophy-a rare combination that makes this book required reading for anyone who cannot afford to ignore the world in which s/he lives.
— Michael F. Marra, University of California, Los Angeles