Constructing Japan: Knowledge Production and Identity Building in Late Nineteenth-Century Western Architectural Discourses (1853-1900) (Brill Studies in Architectural and Urban History)

Loeffler, Beate (Author)

ISBN 10: 9004702334 / ISBN 13: 9789004702332

Published by Brill, 2025

About this Item

496 pages. 9.26x6.11x9.50 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # __9004702334

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Constructing Japan: Knowledge Production and Identity Building in Late Nineteenth-Century Western Architectural Discourses (1853-1900) (Brill Studies in Architectural and Urban History)
• Publisher: Brill
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 9004702334
• ISBN 13: 9789004702332
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 1.05 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

The influence of Japanese art and culture on art in late 19th-century Europe and America through collections of objects and knowledge transfer is already recognised. However, the research in this field often neglects architecture. This study takes a new approach, placing architecture at the centre.
Through in-depth analysis of contemporary textual and visual sources, Beate Löffler shows how western actors from different backgrounds interpreted Japanese architecture as they experienced it, either face-to-face or via texts and images. It unveils a complex process of appropriation and rejection, of claim to interpretive sovereignty, and fascination with the foreign, that led to both new knowledge and cultural clichés.

About the Author

Beate Löffler, senior lecturer (TU Dortmund University), is an architect, historian and art historian with a focus on architectural knowledge transfer, particularly between Japan and Euro-America. Her publications also deal with religious topography, epistemic systems of building and digital humanities.