【Title】

The Concept of Asia

【Description of Lecture (strictly within 40 words)】

History of the concept of Asia during the past 2500 years from classical Greek to contemporary East Asian conceptions, from the point of view of geopolitics, name theory and narrative theory.

【Syllabus】

1st week : Overview of the changing history of conceptions of Asia; methodology of conceptual history, theory of linguistic geopolitics, classical Mediterranean cosmology;  Greek and Roman conceptions of Asia and the world

2nd week: Medieval European conceptions of India, which was equated with Asia; conceptual geopolitics of Portuguese explorers; classical Chinese cosmology and the amalgamation of Jesuit cartography with it; creation of the Chinese name 亜細亜。Emergence of racial and linguistic geopolitics in Europe; establishment of the Urals as the boundary between Asia and Europe + Finland as an Asian country and thus an anomaly west of the Urals. The concept of commonplace and uses of Asia as a commonplace.

3rd week: Emergence of Japanese geopolitics based on an amalgamation of Buddhist, Chinese and European cosmologies. From Nishikawa Joken and Arai Hakuseki to Fukuzawa Yukichi and Okakura Tenshin. Theory of cultural transfers.

4th week: Emergence of an economic narrative of Asia after Wold War II; narrative theory and theory of rhetorical redescription; concepts of the Pacific, Asia-Pacific, East Asia, and Asia. Japan centered, China centered and India centered Asias. New geopolitical  division of Eurasia into Asia, Europe, Middle East and CIS. The modern meaning of Asia vs 東洋. New Asia as a politological, sociological and cultural concept.