Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern (State & Society in East Asia) - Softcover

Duara, Prasenjit

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0742530914 ISBN 13: 9780742530911

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2004

Synopsis

In this powerful and provocative book, Prasenjit Duara uses the case of Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in northeast China from 1932-1945, to explore how such antinomies as imperialism and nationalism, modernity and tradition, and governmentality and exploitation interacted in the post-World War I period. His study of Manchukuo, which had a population of 40 million and was three times the area of Japan, catalyzes a broader understanding of new global trends that characterized much of the twentieth century. Asking why Manchukuo so desperately sought to appear sovereign, Duara examines the cultural and political resources it mobilized to make claims of sovereignty. He argues that Manchukuo, as a transparently constructed "nation-state," offers a unique historical laboratory for examining the utilization and transformation of circulating global forces mediated by the "East Asian modern." Sovereignty and AUthenticity not only shows how Manchukuo drew technologies of modern nationbuilding from China and Japan, but it provides a window into how some of these techniques and processes were obscured or naturalized in the more successful East Asian nation-states. With its sweepingly original theoretical and comparative perspectives on nationalism and imperialism, this book will be essential reading for all those interested in contemporary history.

About this title

About the Author

Prasenjit Duara is professor in the Department of History and professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago.

Edition details

• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0742530914
• ISBN 13: 9780742530911
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 320