EAS348H1

Gift, Plunder, and Exchange: Japan and World History

This course critically re-evaluates the history and historiography of Japanese capitalism, imperialism/colonialism, and world-empire through the lens of three, distinct “modes of exchange”: gift, plunder, and commodity exchange. Inspired by Kojin Karatani’s The Structure of World History: From Modes of Production to Modes of Exchange (2014), this course explores the emancipatory politics inherent in the critical analysis of modes of exchange, and takes up historical cases from Japan, Hokkaido, Okinawa, Taiwan, Korea, China, and the “Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.”