Introduction: Failures East and West – Cultural Encounters between East Asia and Europe

Summary

Cultural encounters between East Asia and Europe have received ample attention in various fields of studies, ranging from cultural and literary studies to history and economics. The concept of failure in these encounters, however, has not. Often, the story of encounters between Asia and the so-called West has been told as one of success, of cross-fertilisation, reciprocal stimulation and an exchange of commodities and knowledge. Yet, the history of East–West encounters is riddled with prominent examples of misunderstandings, ignorance, unrealistic expectations or unbridgeable cultural differences that, in certain contexts and for certain purposes, have been framed as failures. This volume opens up new perspectives on such instances by theorising failure in various historical and cultural contexts. Providing examples from different periods and disciplines, it contributes to current debates about the epistemologies of failure and shows how transcultural encounters are sites where personal and collective norms of failure and success are being shaped and challenged.

In its focus on failed encounters, Failures East and West: Cultural Encounters between East Asia and Europe goes beyond the hitherto dominant inter- and transculturality research, which is only beginning to dedicate itself systematically to the failure of cultural contacts. Focusing not so much on forms of successful exchange and the profitable circulation of ideas or knowledge, the contributions gathered here establish a new view of cultural encounters by demonstrating the subtle ways in which failure is staged, represented and charged with meaning, thus revealing the implicit mental horizons of the cultural players involved. While there is a growing interest in failure in other academic fields (e.g. sociology, psychology, visual arts, material culture and gender studies), what we would like to call failure studies is still in the process of establishing itself in the fields of literary and cultural studies. Failures East and West aims to contribute to this process and to open up approaches to cultural encounters in literary and cultural studies that probe the dimensions of failure as a culturally specific concept.

Failure in the context of international contacts is ubiquitous and contributes to a widespread sense of crisis today. Intercultural encounters in particular have become precarious, as is evident in debates on religious conflicts, migration and the integration of cultural minorities, as well as in the rise of isolationist positions that discard notions of multicultural societies.