Understanding Modern Japan Through Its Literature

Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-8382-2108-3
Verlag: Ibidem-Verlag

Buch, Englisch, 676 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 971 g

Reihe: The Best of Scholars and Scholarship in the Humanities

In today’s ever-shrinking “global village”, intercultural communication based on mutual respect and understanding is more important than ever. The humanities foster precisely this kind of understanding of cultures other than our own. One of the most effective ways to gain deep insight into another society is through its literature, which offers an insider’s perspective on history, religion, politics, and social values. , based on more than fifty years of research, provides such an in-depth view of one of the world’s most fascinating cultures. The volume explores how Japanese writers and intellectuals responded to the turbulent history of the past century and a half, from Western imperialism and Japan’s own imperial expansion to wartime defeat, atomic destruction, and postwar economic recovery. By examining literary responses to these dramatic transformations, the book reveals how Japanese authors struggled to construct and reconstruct national identity amid imperialism, modernization, capitalism, fascism, and globalization. In doing so, it offers an intimate and compelling portrait of Japanese experience throughout the twentieth century.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Starrs, Roy

Yale Neaman, Elliot

Mamdani, Karim

Weitere Mitwirkende

Feldman, Matthew

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturen sonstiger Sprachräume Ost- & Südostasiatische Literatur

Über Autor(innen)

Starrs, Roy
Roy Starrs, M.A., PhD (University of British Columbia), now an honorary professor at the University of Otago in New Zealand, before his recent retirement taught Japanese and Asian Studies in Canada, the United States, Denmark, and New Zealand. He has published widely on Japanese topics, including books on the major novelists Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, and Naoya Shiga, as well as studies of Japanese modernism, the relation between Japanese politics and religion, and cultural responses to the triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown that hit Japan in March, 2011. His most recent book is The Paradoxes of Japan’s Cultural Identity (Routledge, 2025). At present, he is working on a three-volume multidisciplinary comparative study of global cultural responses to disaster from ancient times to the present.