Parasitology
Futoshi Hoshino, Parasitology, Tokyo: Kodansha, 2023.
This book is an essay that explores the issues surrounding symbiosis and parasitism with various perspectives, with the keyword “parasite” as its primary focus. Based on its writing style, it is better categorized as literary criticism rather than academic research.
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We all live as parasites on something else, and none of us are independent of others. Nevertheless, the terms symbiosis or coexistence often obscure this reality. The statement that we coexist implies that each individual is autonomous. However, from an ecological perspective, it is clear that each individual para-exists and lives alongside countless others. The world is not composed of symbiosis among independent individuals, but rather of complex parasitism among all kinds of individuals. Therefore, without exception, we are all prey to something else. In short, I aimed for a paradigm shift from “co-existence” to “para-existence” in this book.
Sublime Liminality
Futoshi Hoshino, Sublime Liminality, Tokyo: Filmart, 2022.
The term “sublime” has long been important in Western culture, particularly concerning beauty and art. Since the late 18th century, the discipline of beauty and art has been called “aesthetics.” The purpose of this book is to show the significance of the sublime today in the sphere of aesthetics and other disciplines, such as ethics and politics.
It is not the intention of this book to provide an answer to the question, “What is the sublime?” The book does not attempt to trace the history of the concept in detail over the past 2000 years. Nevertheless, it identifies significant points of the sublime and shows, from as broad a perspective as possible, what it means to study the concept today. Of course, the general definition of the sublime, its historical development, and references to the topic become clear as you read the book.
Practicing aesthetics
Futoshi Hoshino, Practicing Aesthetics, Tokyo: Suiseisha, 2021.
What is aesthetics? This book attempts to answer this somewhat grandiose question in a non-fundamental way. By “in a non-fundamental way,” I do not mean to ask for a “definition” of what aesthetics is or a “history” of what aesthetics has been, but rather to show what kind of “practice” aesthetics is, in a way that gathers several texts I have published. (p. 9)
Rhetoric of the Sublime
Futoshi Hoshino, Rhetoric of the Sublime, Tokyo: Getsuyosha, 2017.
The main subject of this book is On the Sublime, the oldest work on the sublime by Longinus, and its reception from the 17th to 20th century. Through this, I tried to find another genealogy of the “sublime,” which is now exclusively regarded as an aesthetic concept: that is, what I call the “rhetorical sublime.” (p. 12)
The Sublime and the Uncanny
Futoshi Hoshino and Kamelia Spassova (eds.), The Sublime and the Uncanny, Tokyo: UTCP, 2016.
This volume includes papers presented at the international forum “The Sublime and the Uncanny” on March 3 and 4, 2015 at Sofia University, Bulgaria. The forum was co-organized by the Sofia Literary Theory Seminar (SLS), Cultural Center of Sofia University, and University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy (UTCP). It focused on notions of the “sublime” and the “uncanny,” which play a crucial role not only in the 20th century but also in contemporary critical discourses. The forum posed the question of heuristic potential of these notions in the time of redefinition of understanding of the human intellect and status of the (in) human, respectively. (p. 7)
Futoshi Hoshino 