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URL:https://lectures.london/cambridge-university/nikutai-kokutai-and-perfo
 rmance-as-protest/calender.ics
NAME:Lectures London
X-WR-CALNAME:Lectures London
TIMEZONE-ID:Europe/London
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UID:afb9d656-4ee3-45c5-be7b-13383ce2d5aa
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DTSTAMP:20260612T073254
DTSTART:20260616T170000
DTEND:20260616T190000
SUMMARY:Nikutai\, Kokutai\, and Performance as Protest
LOCATION:Cambridge University: Murray Edwards College
DESCRIPTION:This seminar explores how histories and theories of embodiment
  can frame our understanding of early postwar history\, particularly the p
 eriod 1945-6. It interrogates the idea that this was a period of transitio
 n of ideas about the body\, from all bodies being governed by the Japanese
  government to a period of freedom and liberation\, as espoused by many ma
 le intellectuals of that period. By looking to women intellectuals\, such 
 as early butoh dancers Motofuji Akiko and Nakajima Natsu\, we see that the
 re are many limitations to using the ‘wartime/postwar’ framing for 20t
 h century Japan: that whilst there were certainly changes to censorship wh
 ich led to bolder explorations of sexuality\, these were combined with con
 tinuing policing of bodies by both the Japanese state and the US\, and tha
 t these realities were different depending on ones’ positionality. This 
 lecture unpacks the nuances of this period of supposedly stark transition 
 through the lens of women dancers\, exploring ideas about embodiment\, gen
 der\, and how movement or performance were a means to create new ways of l
 iving in early postwar Japan. Speaker: Dr Alice Baldock. Alice's research 
 interests include 20th century Japanese history\, gender in postwar Japan 
 and the transnational circulation of ideas around ‘the body’. Alice's 
 doctoral research at Wolfson College\, Oxford\, focused on the intellectua
 l views of a group of dancers in the mid-20th century regarding the body (
 especially nikutai\, or flesh body) and movement. In this research she als
 o showed how dancers to reframe post-war Japanese society in a way that al
 lowed them to live more authentically in a world that was becoming increas
 ingly codified and consumerist. Her current research involves tracing the 
 and the transnational circulation and reception of this body of knowledge\
 , to see how and why these ideas about the body - that involved a complete
  eradication of hierarchies of gender\, ability\, and class\, became so po
 pular in Japan and then across the world. The sixth seminar: Tuesday 16th 
 June 2026\, 5–6:30pm\, Council Room Speaker: Dr Alice Baldock Title: Is 
 kokutai dead? Nikutai\, kokutai\, and performance as protest
URL;VALUE=URI:http://www.admin.cam.ac.uk/whatson/detail.shtml?uid=f1e4f710
 -88bf-4c98-bddd-b5c13c71cd9b
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