Comparative Study of Travels and Representations(Coordinator: Takachio Hitoshi)This project mainly investigates the discourses of travels which present encounters with theothers, decode representations encoded by the others and the meaningful world presented by the othersand constitute the various meanings of cultural otherness. In the course of this research, the subjectwill be extended to contexts which produce discourses on the others, construction of the distance ordifference between the self (own culture) and the others, and the evaluation of the representation of theothers.Currently there has been considerable progress in Europe and America in the study of travel-books, questioning the premise that the others must be directly represented and in reflecting theinadequacy of considering the basis of representing the others and the discourses on the othersthemselves. In correlating these studies, the project shall treat the texts of the modern post-renaissanceEuropean and American travelers and also the texts of other travelers. Also the various modes ofrepresentation of others and related ideas (such as order and justice, orthodoxy, cosmos) shall be takenup as subjects for research. By such comparative studies, it must be made clear that arrangement ofthe others themselves and of places and times in which the others have been set, have been done by thecultures with ecriture, and that there are the discourses which present the modes of relationshipbetween the culture with ecriture and the others (e.g., ideal, harmonious, illusional, chaotic, desperate,exclusive). Also these studies will consider the construction of identities in each culture and theuniversality of culture and even the discourses of modernity.Research on CAI Programs in Asian and African Language Multimedia Database(Coordinator: Minegishi Makoto)The main aim of this project is developing self-teaching courses for Asian and African languages,that are useful both to the students who want to use them as supplementary materials in the intensivecourses held annually at our Institute as well as to those who want to master a language to a certaindegree of proficiency on their own initiative.Research meetings take place twice a year to discuss various problems including: Effectiveprogramming of CAI course, selection of data for exercises and effective ways of arranging them;Research into the present condition of ‘multimedia systems’, and the prospects for its use in languageteaching; Drawing up of plans for new hardware and software systems and planning for futureactivities.Comprehensive Study of the Tai Cultural Area(Coordinator: Shintani Tadahiko, L.A.)The objectives of this joint project are: (1) Elaboration of a new method to analyze a multiculturalinteractive area, the Tai Cultural Area; (2) Collection of information about the Tai Cultural Area andpreparation for eventual field researches on the area; (3) Discussion on the results of the fieldresearches; (4) Study of the Shan languages and dialects; (5) Interpretation and analysis of the existingdocuments on the area; and (6) Publication of the basic documents.6
元のページ ../index.html#8