My Purpose (or statement there of)
May. 3rd, 2006 06:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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mishloran and anyone else who's midly curious...
My Statement of Purpose
One of the most interesting ways to understand how cultures interact with each other is to look at the myths they create about themselves. Modern myths are not being shared over campfires, passed from parents to children, or spread through word of mouth. Instead these myths are being produced in the texts of popular culture: movies, manga, and science fiction. Mass production, reproduction, and consumption of these images and ideas occur on a global scale. Most importantly, these myths serve as commentaries – not on what the world should be, but on what it is now.
Cyberpunk is the most fertile ground for these productions of urban modernity, with Japan and America the two countries where this genre is actively created. What is cyberpunk? Webster’s Dictionary defines cyberpunk as “science fiction dealing with future urban societies dominated by computer technology.” I will investigate these mythologies of the urban subject and research what it means to be a part of, or defined by, cyberpunk. I will also detail how a culture of industrialization, with enhanced access to information, and an increasing belief in a global society is creating a version of the modern urban space and the modern subject that dissolves the geographical boundaries of these two nations.
I will put into practice my studies of postmodern literature and the critical practices in psychoanalytic, semiotic and poststructuralist theory. By incorporating these skills, learned from my professors at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where I attained my Bachelor’s Degree (in modern literature), I will bring a unique comparative literature perspective to the study of cyberpunk and postmodern literature of these two countries. Samuel Delany’s discussions of science fiction and its textual potential will inform my investigation of the subject being created in these texts. I want to incorporate Marilyn Ivy’s examination of Japanese postmodernism and marginalized spaces as part of my cross-cultural investigation. Also, by integrating Partha Chatterjee’s conceptions of globalization and modernization, I will explore how these productions of a subject are being used to define what it means to be a global subject and a product of a global society.
Although it was Dr. Susan Napier’s interests in Japanese animation that first drew me to the Asian Studies Department of the University of Texas at Austin, I specifically chose this university for my Masters level work because of the professors I have met through my experiences as an undergraduate pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies. I have been given an opportunity to work with Professor Kirsten Cather, Professor Kaushik Ghosh and Dr. John Traphagan: I am galvanized by the perspectives they offer. Professor Cather’s work on censorship will help inform my discussions of marginal texts. Dr. Traphagan’s guidance has already helped to begin my investigations of the modern Japanese subject. Professor Ghosh has introduced me to critical theory about globalization that will help shape my arguments. I look forward to expanding my discourse with them all, and with professors in other departments whose research interests intersect with my own.
I would like to work on my postgraduate education at UT because I believe it is imperative that the cross-cultural examination being done in the anthropological and sociological fields be expanded into the study of literature. If accepted into the masters program, I will be able to further explore my theories of the influence of the productions of self in both Japanese and American literature with the help of a department that is uniquely suited to allow me to focus on my goals.
mishloran and anyone else who's midly curious...My Statement of Purpose
One of the most interesting ways to understand how cultures interact with each other is to look at the myths they create about themselves. Modern myths are not being shared over campfires, passed from parents to children, or spread through word of mouth. Instead these myths are being produced in the texts of popular culture: movies, manga, and science fiction. Mass production, reproduction, and consumption of these images and ideas occur on a global scale. Most importantly, these myths serve as commentaries – not on what the world should be, but on what it is now.
Cyberpunk is the most fertile ground for these productions of urban modernity, with Japan and America the two countries where this genre is actively created. What is cyberpunk? Webster’s Dictionary defines cyberpunk as “science fiction dealing with future urban societies dominated by computer technology.” I will investigate these mythologies of the urban subject and research what it means to be a part of, or defined by, cyberpunk. I will also detail how a culture of industrialization, with enhanced access to information, and an increasing belief in a global society is creating a version of the modern urban space and the modern subject that dissolves the geographical boundaries of these two nations.
I will put into practice my studies of postmodern literature and the critical practices in psychoanalytic, semiotic and poststructuralist theory. By incorporating these skills, learned from my professors at the University of California at Santa Cruz, where I attained my Bachelor’s Degree (in modern literature), I will bring a unique comparative literature perspective to the study of cyberpunk and postmodern literature of these two countries. Samuel Delany’s discussions of science fiction and its textual potential will inform my investigation of the subject being created in these texts. I want to incorporate Marilyn Ivy’s examination of Japanese postmodernism and marginalized spaces as part of my cross-cultural investigation. Also, by integrating Partha Chatterjee’s conceptions of globalization and modernization, I will explore how these productions of a subject are being used to define what it means to be a global subject and a product of a global society.
Although it was Dr. Susan Napier’s interests in Japanese animation that first drew me to the Asian Studies Department of the University of Texas at Austin, I specifically chose this university for my Masters level work because of the professors I have met through my experiences as an undergraduate pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Asian Studies. I have been given an opportunity to work with Professor Kirsten Cather, Professor Kaushik Ghosh and Dr. John Traphagan: I am galvanized by the perspectives they offer. Professor Cather’s work on censorship will help inform my discussions of marginal texts. Dr. Traphagan’s guidance has already helped to begin my investigations of the modern Japanese subject. Professor Ghosh has introduced me to critical theory about globalization that will help shape my arguments. I look forward to expanding my discourse with them all, and with professors in other departments whose research interests intersect with my own.
I would like to work on my postgraduate education at UT because I believe it is imperative that the cross-cultural examination being done in the anthropological and sociological fields be expanded into the study of literature. If accepted into the masters program, I will be able to further explore my theories of the influence of the productions of self in both Japanese and American literature with the help of a department that is uniquely suited to allow me to focus on my goals.
