Greeting
Our bulletin, Genron, has entered its second season as of fall 2019.
The first season of Genron began with Genron 1, published in winter 2015, and came to an end with Genron 9, published in fall 2018. After a year of preparation, Genron 10 will be the inaugural issue of the bulletin’s second season. We plan to publish Genron on an irregular schedule during its second season, at a pace of once every six to nine months.
The editor-in-chief of this second season will continue to be Genron founder Hiroki Azuma. Season 1 of Genron and its attempt to update the traditions of post-war Japanese philosophy and literary criticism was well received by the reading public. Season 2 will carry on this legacy while also attempting to create new intellectual discourses that target an even broader base of readers. In addition to inviting writers from abroad to contribute to Genron, close links will be formed to its sister publication, the monthly electronic journal Genron β, as well as with Genron Café, the Tokyo event space operated by Genron.
Only a limited number of each Genron issue will be printed. Joining Genron Members is suggested for those who wish to receive guaranteed copies. In addition to a print edition, we will also be publishing an electronic edition, which will be sold on global platforms such as Amazon Kindle and Google Play, as well as on Genron’s own direct sales website.
In a time when social media has engulfed society, the power of words that instantly invite understanding, empathy, and dissemination upon first glance has grown at the expense of others. Everyone, whether they are in the world of politics or the academy, seeks only messages that are easily understood and do not require time. Genron is a company that objects to this spirit of our age, focusing on thoughts and messages that cannot be understood at first glance and require time in order to identify with. Reading Genron takes time, while the events held at Genron Café are renowned for their length. We wish to align ourselves with those who see this time not as a cost, but as a value.
Why exactly do philosophy and criticism exist, and for whom does it exist? As we prepare to enter the 2020s, Genron will further grapple earnestly with these questions.
We hope for your further support.
August 30, 2019
Hiroki Azuma, Genron Editor-in-Chief
September 26, 2019 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 10
Table of Contents
Series 2 START Issue
From Investment to Donation, and to Prayer
The Challenge of SOLIO and Its Philosophy
Kazuma Ieiri + Daisuke Katsura + Hiroki Azuma
On the Foolishness of Evil,or the Problem of the Prison Camp and the Housing Complex
Hiroki Azuma
[From Heisei to Reiwa]
History Is a Family
Genichiro Takahashi + Hiroki Azuma
Nation, Gender, New Era
Takeshi Hara + Hiroki Azuma
[AI and the Humanities]
Artificial Intelligence Today and the Imagination of Science Fiction
[Roundtable] Nozomi Ohmori + Satoshi Hase + Youichiro Miyake
MetaDoko
A Fermentation Model of Communication and Thought
Dominique Chen
[Book Guide] 15 Must-Reads Connecting AI and the Humanities
Takamitsu Yamamoto + Hiromitsu Yoshikawa
[Genron Seminar]
Religious Architecture and Sightseeing
Russia Today Seen from Tourism and Nationalism
Akiko Honda + Sanami Takahashi + Yoko Ueda
Detour Development Travelogue | 1 | Akira Takayama
Art and Cosmotechnics | 1 | For a Post-European Philosophy | Yuk Hui
Theory and Cold War | 1 | Right-Wing Sartre? | Alex Taek-Gwang Lee
On Other Surfaces | 8 | 1970s Art History in Myth | Yohei Kurose
On Independent States | 9 | American Dream, Soviet Dream | Kenro Hayamizu
Islam Read Askew | 1 | Islamic Pop and Europe | Yohei Matsuyama
Reviews and Prospects on the Promotion of National Prestige | 1 | Can the Symbolization of Politics Be Stopped? | Masanori Tsujita
Traveling the World in Russian | 9 | Will Art Change Local Cities? | Yoko Ueda
[Novel]
The Pigeon Clock of Dischronia│Afternoon IX│ Melon Uminekozawa
English Translations and Abstracts
November 8, 2018 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 9
Table of Contents
Series 1 Final Issue
Russian Contemporary Thought III
An Ethics of the Déraciné and A Philosophy of the Tourist
Hiroyuki Itsuki + Mitsuyoshi Numano + Hiroki Azuma
On the Language of Love Hiroki Azuma
Criticism in Contemporary Japan IV
[Discussion]150 Years of Japanese Thought: Intellectuals, Literature, and the Emperor
Tadashi Karube + Satoshi Osawa + Akinaka Senzaki + Hiroki Azuma
The Age of Games II
War Games and the Possibility of Gamic Subjectivity: Beyond Serious Games and Propaganda Masanori Tsujita
Pattern and Symmetry: Indie Games from the Perspective of Animation Films
Nobuaki Doi
Playing and Metagames: Gamic Vision as Symbolic Form Tetsuya Matsushita
Preface to a Fundamental Theory of Games: From the Perspective of Games as Playing with Cause and Effect Takamitsu Yamamoto
Russian Contemporary Thought III
Theory of the Novel from “Philosophical Wonder”: From the Notes of the 1940s-1970s Mikhail Bakhtin
From the Phenomenology to Theory of Laughter and Novel Hajime Kaizawa
The Question Concerning Technology in China: An Essay in Cosmotechnics Introduction #3 Yuk Hui
Wake Up New #6 Prabda Yoon
On Other Surfaces #7 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #8 Kenro Hayamizu
The Genealogy of chelfitsch(s): On the New “Crowd” Marron Shibukawa
[Fiction]The Lagos Biopolis Tokio Amasawa [Columns] [Novel]The Pigeon Clock of Dischronia│Afternoon VIII│ Melon UminekozawaEnglish Translations and Abstracts
May 25, 2018 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 8
Table of Contents
The Age of Games
In Search of a 21st-Century Las Meninas Hiroki Azuma
The Age of Games
[Discussion]From Media Mix to Pachinko: The Rise and Fall of Japanese Games, 1991-2018
Akito Inoue + Yohei Kurose + Sayawaka + Hiroki Azuma
Metagamic Realism: Digital Games as a Platform for Criticism Hiroshi Yoshida
Origins of Contemporary Art: Genealogy of Dual-Layered Vision Yohei Kurose
The Principle of the Button and the Ethics of Games Sayawaka
How are Games Social Problems? Akito Inoue
[Interview]JRPG as an Apparatus of Experience Katsura Hashino
[Interview]Games are Seeking Akira Kurosawa Ibai Ameztoy
Visual Novels Outside Japan Randy Au
Gamic Action, Four Moment Alexander R. Galloway
The Age of Games: 10 Keywords #1 Shin Imai
Oleg Aronson + Helen Petrovsky
The Question Concerning Technology in China:An Essay in Cosmotechnics Introduction #2 Yuk Hui
Wake Up New #5 Prabda Yoon
On Independent States #7 Kenro Hayamizu
English Translations and Abstracts
December 27, 2017 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 7
Table of Contents
Russian Contemporary Thought II
Rebooting Philosophy
[Discussion]Connection, Disconnection, Misdelivery Masaya Chiba + Koichiro Kokubun + Hiroki Azuma
The Revival of Distance Hiroki Azuma
Russian Contemporary Thought II
[Introduction]Towerds an Encounter with the Parallel Others Kyohei Norimatsu
[Discussion]Remaking History: The Soviet Union as Cultural Foundation
Junna Hiramatsu + Takashi Matsushita + Kyohei Norimatsu + Naoto Yagi + Yoko Ueda
The Struggle of Post-Soviet Leftist Art: Politicizing Art, Activating the Public Naoto Yagi
Space as a Destiny:Legitimizing the Russian Empire through Geography and Cosmos Marlène Laruelle
Eisenstein: Motion, Image, and AnimationRebooting Philosophy Muneaki Hatakeyama
[Introduction]Is Tourism Possible in Russia?:The future of Unfinished Mourning and Memorial Resources Junna Hiramatsu
The Hard and the Soft Alexander Etkind
Ichthyomelanchology, or Diving into the Soviet Past Ilya Kalinin
Rebooting Philosophy
The Question Concerning Technology in China:An Essay in Cosmotechnics Introduction #1 Yuk Hui
[Discusssion]Is there a Future in/for Cyberpunk?: Games, Virtual Reality, Theme Parks Dai Sato + Sayawaka + Hiroki Azuma
The Invisible Borders of the Image: An Introduction to a Theory of a New Japanese Landscape Ken Yamashita
Wake Up New #4 Prabda Yoon
On Other Surfaces #6 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #6 Kenro Hayamizu
English Translations and Abstracts
September 15, 2017 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 6
Table of Contents
Russian Contemporary Thought I
Toward a Discourse of Reception and Misdelivery Hiroki Azuma
Russian Contemporary Thought I
[Discussion]Reintroducing Russian Thought: Bakhtin, the Masses, and Sobornost
Hajime Kaizawa + Kyohei Norimatsu + Muneaki Hatakeyama + Hiroki Azuma
The (Post) Modern of the Defeated Kyohei Norimatsu
Zakhar Prilepin, or the Hero in the Age of Post-Truth Takashi Matsushita
Dasein as an Actor: Stages and Problems in the Development of the Fourth Political Theory Aleksandr Dugin
Negativity in Communism: The Paradox of Alienation Artemy Magun
The Philosophy of Play
[Introduction] Otaku of the World, Yet Another Effort if You Want to Reach the World Game! Hidetaka Ishida
[Lecture] Finite and Infinite Games: An Interpretation of James P. Carse in the Era of Algorithmic Governmentality Bernard Stiegler
[Interview] From an Infinite Game to a Philosophy of Will and Drive Bernard Stiegler + Hiroki Azuma + Hidetaka Ishida
Wake Up New #3 Prabda Yoon
On Other Surfaces #5 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #5 Kenro Hayamizu
Introduction to Dark Tourism #13 Akira Ide
English Translations and Abstracts
June 8, 2017 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 5
Table of Contents
Ghostly Body
Criticism, or Seeing Ghosts Hiroki Azuma
Ghostly Body
[Introduction]Three Days Devoted to Becoming a Ghost Hiroki Azuma
[Discussion]From the Symbolic to the Tactile
Jo Kanamori + Masachi Osawa + Atsushi Sasaki + Kazuki Umezawa + Hiroki Azuma
[Interview] Humans Think from their Feet Tadashi Suzuki
[Discussion]The Origin of Theater and the Birth of Ghosts
Masachi Osawa + Atsushi Sasaki + Hiroki Azuma
[Column]Playwrights Workshop as Consensus Formation Training Hibiki Takama
[Discussion]Theater is “Half and Half” Norimizu Ameya + Atsushi Sasaki
[Column]Theater in Nippon Post “Post-chelfitsch” Atsushi Sasaki
Empty Bodies, Dead Bodies, and the “Outside” Hidenaga Otori
Ghosts of Kabuki Yuichi Kinoshita
Demon, Sublime, Body Ryota Fukushima
Ghosts that Possess the “Face” Daisuke Watanabe
Utopia and Dialectics
Valery Podoroga + Fredric Jameson + Vladimir Mironov + Helen Petrovsky + Oleg Aronson + Andrei Paramonov + Jonathan Flatley + Peter Fitting
Wake Up New #2 Prabda Yoon
On Other Surfaces #4 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #4 Kenro Hayamizu
Introduction to Dark Tourism #12 Akira Ide
English Translations and Abstracts
April 1, 2017 released
2,300 yen + tax
Genron 0
Table of Contents
Part1
A Philosophy of the Tourist
- Chapter One: Tourism
- Supplement: Secondary Derivative Works
- Chapter Two: Politics and Its Other
- Chapter Three: Stratified World
- Chapter Four: Toward a Postal Multitude
Part 2
A Philosophy of the Family: Introduction
- Chapter Five: Family
- Chapter Six: The Uncanny
- Chapter Seven: Dostoevsky’s Final Subject
November 15, 2016 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 4
Table of Contents
Criticism in Contemporary Japan III
[Discussion]Will Liberals Reboot? Jiro Yamaguchi + Daisuke Tsuda + Hiroki Azuma
An Illness Called Criticism Hiroki Azuma
Criticism in Contemporary Japan III
[Interview] From Marx (via Gorbachev) to Kant: After the Rise and Fall of Postwar Enlightenment Akira Asada
Japan’s Cultural Left: On with the Story? Atsushi Sasaki
[Discussion] Problems with Heisei Criticism 2001-2016
Makoto Ichikawa + Satoshi Osawa + Atsushi Sasaki + Sayawaka + Hiroki Azuma
[Appendix]The Age of Hatena Diaries: Intersections between Criticism and the Internet
Satoshi Osawa + Sayawaka + Hiroki Azuma
Stillborn Babies of the Lost Generation Shunsuke Sugita
Twenty Years of Street Thought Ikuo Gonoi
Kojin Karatani and Korean Literature Revisited Cho Young-il
Wake Up New #1 Prabda Yoon
On Other Surfaces #3 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #3 Kenro Hayamizu
Introduction to Dark Tourism #11 Akira Ide
Contemporary Art as Global Art: A Critical Estimate #2 Hans Belting
English Translations and Abstracts
July 15, 2016 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 3
Table of Contents
Escape from Postwar Japanese Art
The World After Dark Tourism
Hiroki Azuma
Another Bad Place
[Interview] From Museum to Garden: The Philosophy of REAL DMZ PROJECT Sunjung Kim
The Mirror and the Swamp, or Representation of Division in Media and Art Park Chan-Kyong
Outward from Japan
[Discussion] The Colonies and Exposure in the Wild: Towards a Reinterpretation of Postwar Japanese Art
Makoto Aida + Reiji Ando+ Noi Sawaragi + Yohei Kurose
A Different Place, While Being Here: In a “Bad Place” in the Age of Global Art Atsushi Shinfuji
The Art History of TranspositionYohei Kurose
Reconsidering “Okinawan Art” Before 1945: From Yoshitaro Kamakura’s Studies of Okinawan Art to Yashu Nakamatsu’s Gods and Villages
Seiichi Tsuchiya
Reexamining World Art History
Critical Topography of World Art Yohei Kurose + Atsushi Shinfuji
Is Art History Globalizable?: A Critical Commentary from a Far Eastern Point of View Shigemi Inaga
Contemporary Art as Global Art: A Critical Estimate #1 Hans Belting
The Endogenous-Exogenous Interface in Globalism: The Case of China and Thailand John Clark
A Shifting Leviathan and the Politics of Affect Bak Kabun
Introduction to Dark Tourism #10 Akira Ide
The Allegorical Impulse Part2 Craig Owens
English Translations and Abstracts
April 1, 2016 released
2,400 yen + tax
Genron 2
Table of Contents
Criticism in Contemporary Japan 2 (1)
[Discussion] From Science Fiction to GOD Yasutaka Tsutsui + Hiroki Azuma
For a Phiosophy of Mourning to Come Hiroki Azuma
Mourning Spaces
[Interview] The Mourning of Species and Logic of the Forest Shinichi Nakazawa
[Proposal]Haunted Nation Revisited/Reposed: A Rejected Proposal for Venice Biennale of Architecture 2016
Chaos*Lounge + Kenshu Shintsubo + Daisuke Tsuda + Ryuji Fujimura + Hidenori Watanabe + Hiroki Azuma
The Architecture and Space of Memorialization in Modern Japan Taro Igarashi
[Discussion]Architecture beyond Death: From Mobilization to the Archive
Russian Cosmism: Biopolitics of Immorality Boris Groys
Criticism in Contemporary Japan 2 (2)
[Discussion] Problems with Heisei Criticism 1989–2001
Ryota Fukushima + Satoshi Osawa + Makoto Ichikawa + Hiroki Azuma
[Columns] Uwasa-no Shinso and the rise of Anti-establishment “Sabukaru” Critics Sawayaka
On Other Surfaces #2 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #2 Kenro Hayamizu
Introduction to Dark Tourism #9 Akira Ide
The Allegorical Impulse Part1 (2/2) Craig Owens
English Translations and Abstracts
December 1, 2015 released
2,300 yen + tax
Genron 1
Table of Contents
The Work of Art in the Age of Terrorism (1)
[Discussion] Theatre, Violence, and the State Tadashi Suzuki + Hiroki Azuma
On Our Inaugural Issue Hiroki Azuma
Criticism in Contemporary Japan
[Report] Criticism and Media Satoshi Osawa
[Discussion] Problems with Showa Criticism 1975–1989
Ryota Fukushima + Satoshi Osawa + Makoto Ichikawa + Hiroki Azuma
Groove/Tone/Atmosphere Atsushi Sasaki
Looking from the Outside Reiji Ando
How do we Criticize Japanese Literature? Ryota Fukushima
On Other Surfaces #1 Yohei Kurose
On Independent States #1 Kenro Hayamizu
Introduction to Dark Tourism #8 Akira Ide
The Work of Art in the Age of Terrorism (2)
[Discussion] Dostoyevsky and a Literature of Terrorism Ikuo Kameyama + Hiroki Azuma + Yoko Ueda
[Interview] Outside America only Superman can be Explained Boris Groys
The Allegorical Impulse Part1 (1/2) Craig Owens
[Columns] [Novel]The Pigeon Clock of Dischronia | Afternoon 1 | Melon UminekizawaEnglish Translations and Abstracts