Description

My research involves a critique of the concept of life as it emerged in Meiji era Japan. I argue that a central condition of possibility for thinking life in its modern form is a process of individuation that shapes bodies at an ontological level. By critiquing life and its ontology of individuation, I unearth the traces of an impossible “primary collectivism” that is not merely reducible to a congregation of individuals, but originally collective. In this presentation I will track this primary collectivism in a lineage tying the mutual aid societies of Japan’s Edo period to the life insurance industry of the Meiji 10s and 20s. I will then show how a particular affective order emerged under the Meiji state that defined, not merely the ideological or economic horizon of possibility for capitalist modernity, but reached down to the very core of political being itself.

Sean Koji Callaghan is a doctoral candidate in the Department of East Asian Studies. His interests include early modern and modern Japanese history, Meiji era literature, French and Japanese critical theory, and continental philosophy. He lives with his wife in Vancouver and currently misses her beyond any calculation the law of large numbers could provide.