Language and Information Sciences

"Gengotai" is a newly coined word for an inclusive approach to any and every phenomenon of language. Since the 1960s, the study of literature and language has changed greatly, reflecting the influence of such (French) writers as Roland Barthes, Jacques Derrida, Jacques Lacan or Michel Foucault, to name only a few. "Gengotai" is part of this revolution, drawing inspiration not only from French writers but from other influential writers of various backgrounds as well, and basing itself fundamentally on the insight that social and cultural phenomena are structured by language.

As a result, "Gengotai" encourages an inter-disciplinary approach in order to achieve a more flexible, innovative and critical way of studying such traditionally different fields as literature (dealing with the literatures of different languages), cultural communication (or translation ), philosophical studies, and media or film studies. Our Department, therefore, takes as its subject matter an unusually wide variety of primary phenomena - originals and translations, spoken and written forms, synchronic and diachronic studies - and approaches them in a fertile and open-minded way, drawing on historical, literary and philosophical scholarship and insight.