ABSTRACT
In modern and contemporary Japanese contact with the Western world, intercultural concerns focus on ideas of unity as opposed to universality. Reading Suzuki Tadashi’s work in light of various Japanese discourses on subjectivity (from traditional theatre, from wartime political discourse, from analytical philosophy, and from post-war discourse) suggests ways in which the distinct construction of the subject leads, in turn, to conceptions of difference that diverge from Western models. These notions of discourse emerge through the trope of madness, through the animal energy of Suzuki’s actors, and through the utilization of Western texts. These elements generate an assimilative interculturalism, focused on the individual body, that maintains rather than decreases notions of difference.
