| This dissertation delineates the problem of representation of an Asian island group, caught between conceptions and preconceptions imposed from without on the one hand, and a dialectics of identity politics from within on the other hand. Special emphasis is placed on the distortion in the representation of the Others that results from the already established framework of representation and from the prevailing discourse that legitimizes the framework itself. Such distortion seems to be a problem of identity for those who are forced to play the role of Others to a Western Self, and who thus feel forced to correct such distorted images within the prevailing discourse.; Through her own theoretical interest in representation, the author came to think of her birthplace, Okinawa, today a Japanese prefecture in the Ryukyu archipelago, as an excellent locale for analysis. Twentieth century Okinawa offered the perfect setting for examining the interplay and dynamics of representation, since both Japan and the United States have repeatedly and insistently intervened in the representation of Okinawan culture so as to legitimize their respective claims on the island chain. The analysis of cultural images and representations there reveals what kinds of framework are selected for a particular discourse to prevail. Presumably, such an analysis made by an Okinawan who also studied within the framework of a Western discipline might somehow shed light upon current and disturbing issues of representation, and particularly upon the process though which the Others are necessarily caught within a specific discourse of representation. |
