“[A] highly imaginative study. . . . By bringing the painful human cost of empire to the forefront in a way that few other scholars writing in English have, and linking those costs to larger economic structures and cultural phenomena, Driscoll has made a significant contribution to the growing field of Japanese colonial studies.” - ERIK ESSELSTROM, American Historical ... Read moreReview “A good book teaches you things you don’t know. A very good book does that and also changes the way you think about things in general. Mark Driscoll’s recent study, Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque examines labor and social change in the days of the Japanese empire, and it is a very good book.” - Alexis Dudden, Monumental Nipponica “[A] thought-provoking narrative of Japanese imperialism. . . . The book not only conceptualizes theoretical literatures of postcolonial studies and Marxism but also suggests concrete historical knowledge. I believe the book will attract readers not only in history but also comparative literature, cultural studies, psychology and philosophy.” - Sang Mi Park, Pacific Affairs “[P]rovocatively argued and spiritedly written. . . . an audacious book. Bold, challenging, and refreshingly unrestrained by snooze-inducing generic conventions, Driscoll unapologetically shoves you into the muck of Japan’s modernity, breaches those vast colonial silences that ‘absorb all behavior, no matter how dirty, how animal it gets,’ and somehow makes the experience pleasurable. I can’t help but desire to be shoved further, past 1945, to trace vampiric revenants of the bio/neuro/necropolitical in postwar Japan. Perhaps there’s a sequel to be made.” - Gerald Figal, Journal of Japanese Studies “Driscoll squarely confronts the real human costs of Japanese imperialism. He rightly demands that the problem of colonial labour be placed at the centre of abstract discussions of ‘resources,’ modernization, and late development. He also skillfully exposes the ‘ideological fantasy’ of Japan’s wartime leaders and the ways in which ‘civilizer/looter’ represented two sides of the same imperialist coin.” - Janis Mimura, Labour/Le Travail “Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque is a stupendous study of Japanese empire. While existing studies often revolve around the analysis of colonial institutions (such as the army, government, and market) and discourses of colonial modernity, Mark Driscoll takes us into a wholly different terrain of politics, bringing out of their historical coffins the ‘subaltern of the subaltern,’ from coolies, human traffickers, prostitutes, hustlers, and drug dealers to comfort women and suicidal soldiers.”—Hyun Ok Park, author of Two Dreams in One Bed: Empire, Social Life, and the Origins of the North Korean Revolution in Manchuria “Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque is not simply an informed account of Japan’s imperial adventure in Asia but also an original and thought-provoking rethinking of how we must proceed if we are to understand the dynamic relationship between the theoretically general and the historically concrete. One of the book’s principal effects is to liberate the discourse of postcolonialism from its dominant Anglo-Indian emphasis by grounding it in a different historical and imperial configuration.”—Harry D. Harootunian, author of The Empire’s New Clothes: Paradigm Lost, and Regained “This book will be an essential touchstone for our understanding of twentieth-century imperialism, and of the transformation of labor under twentieth-century capitalism. Mark Driscoll’s elaboration of the notion of the biopolitical is the most imaginative and productive use of the concept that I have seen. His meticulous and wide-ranging research, drawing on Chinese and Korean sources as well as on his thorough mastery of Japanese archival and scholarly literature, not only makes a clear case for the specificity of the Japanese imperial project but offers crucial genealogical insights into the emergence of modern East Asian regimes of capital. Written with commitment, wit, and vision, it is also a great pleasure to read.”—Christopher Leigh Connery, author of The Empire of the Text: Writing and Authority in Early Imperial China “[A] thought-provoking narrative of Japanese imperialism. . . . The book not only conceptualizes theoretical literatures of postcolonial studies and Marxism but also suggests concrete historical knowledge. I believe the book will attract readers not only in history but also comparative literature, cultural studies, psychology and philosophy.”
Sang Mi Park
Pacific Affairs
“[P]rovocatively argued and spiritedly written. . . . an audacious book. Bold, challenging, and refreshingly unrestrained by snooze-inducing generic conventions, Driscoll unapologetically shoves you into the muck of Japan’s modernity, breaches those vast colonial silences that ‘absorb all behavior, no matter how dirty, how animal it gets,’ and somehow makes the experience pleasurable. I can’t help but desire to be shoved further, past 1945, to trace vampiric revenants of the bio/neuro/necropolitical in postwar Japan. Perhaps there’s a sequel to be made.”
Gerald Figal
Journal of Japanese Studies
“A good book teaches you things you don’t know. A very good book does that and also changes the way you think about things in general. Mark Driscoll’s recent study, Absolute Erotic, Absolute Grotesque examines labor and social change in the days of the Japanese empire, and it is a very good book.”
Alexis Dudden
Monumenta Nipponica
“Driscoll squarely confronts the real human costs of Japanese imperialism. He rightly demands that the problem of colonial labour be placed at the centre of abstract discussions of ‘resources,’ modernization, and late development. He also skillfully exposes the ‘ideological fantasy’ of Japan’s wartime leaders and the ways in which ‘civilizer/looter’ represented two sides of the same imperialist coin.”
Janis Mimura
Labour/Le Travail
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