November in Japan. Proper Ways of Being There
November in Japan. Proper Ways of Being There

Summary/Abstract: The following paper analyzes the ways in which imagination is a key mechanism in defining the concept of identity (of a persona or of the other). It does so by articulating two concrete experiences of Europeans visiting Japan: the literary theorist Roland Barthes in 1966 and the jazz pianist Keith Jarrett in1976. Both cases are relevant and symptomatic not only for those historical periods, but also for essential contemporary debates concerning cultural appropriation, multiculturalism and the perspectives through which we encounter, comprehend, and behave towards alterity. Several more theoretical dimensions are revisited, from Martin Heidegger’s rooting of the sense of Being in a precise here and now to ethical considerations on what constitues an Event (and not only an aesthetic one) and to the way music can teach us different nuances for redefining contemporary theory in connection to today’s most urgent needs.

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