The Founding Generation of Japanese Scholars in the Czech Lands (1918–1968):

Abstract

The paper aims to understand the process of constituting and consolidating Japanese Studies in the Czech lands, i.e., the Western parts of Czechoslovakia consisting of Bohemia, Moravia, and Silesia, in the period between 1918 and 1968. It was this historical period that overlapped with the life and professional activity of the founding generation of local Japanese Studies (Gerolf Coudenhove-Kalergi, Otto Wierer, Jaroslav Průsek, Vlasta Hilska). What were the foundations from which this discipline emerged in the Czech lands and how did social transformations affect its development? To what extent was it influenced by the survival, adaptation, and negotiation strategies of the members of the founding generation of this discipline? The analysis of the behavior of social agents (the microlevel) within the context of paradigmatic and ideological changes in the social structure (the macro-level) using the sociological methodology of Pierre Bourdieu enriched by the generational theory of Karl Mannheim makes it possible to particularize the Sonderweg of Japanese Studies in the Czech lands in comparison with academic institutions further to the west and in the USA, and thus to enrich the social science discourse of East Asia within Western civilization.