| Topographies of Japanese Modernism Contributor(s): Lippit, Seiji (Author) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0231125305 ISBN-13: 9780231125307 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $118.80 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: April 2002 Annotation: What happens when a critique of modernity -- a "revolt against the traditions of the Western world" -- is situated within a non-European context, where the concept of the modern has been inevitably tied to the image of the West? Seiji M. Lippit offers the first comprehensive study in English of Japanese modernist fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. Through close readings of four leading figures of this movement -- Akutagawa, Yokomitsu, Kawabata, and Hayashi -- Lippit aims to establish a theoretical and historical framework for the analysis of Japanese modernism. The 1920s and 1930s witnessed a general sense of crisis surrounding the institution of literature, marked by both the radical politicization of literary practice and the explosion of new forms of cultural production represented by mass culture. Against this backdrop, this study traces the heterogeneous literary topographies of modernist writings. Through an engagement with questions of representation, subjectivity, and ideology, it situates the disintegration of literary form in these texts within the writers' exploration of the fluid borderlines of Japanese modernity. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - Japan - Literary Criticism | Asian - Japanese - Literary Criticism | Semiotics & Theory |
| Dewey: 895.634 |
| LCCN: 2001047826 |
| Lexile Measure: 1550 |
| Physical Information: 0.88" H x 6.34" W x 9.34" (1.19 lbs) 288 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 20th Century - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: What happens when a critique of modernity--a "revolt against the traditions of the Western world"--is situated within a non-European context, where the concept of the modern has been inevitably tied to the image of the West? Seiji M. Lippit offers the first comprehensive study in English of Japanese modernist fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. Through close readings of four leading figures of this movement-- Akutagawa, Yokomitsu, Kawabata, and Hayashi--Lippit aims to establish a theoretical and historical framework for the analysis of Japanese modernism. The 1920s and 1930s witnessed a general sense of crisis surrounding the institution of literature, marked by both the radical politicization of literary practice and the explosion of new forms of cultural production represented by mass culture. Against this backdrop, this study traces the heterogeneous literary topographies of modernist writings. Through an engagement with questions of representation, subjectivity, and ideology, it situates the disintegration of literary form in these texts within the writers' exploration of the fluid borderlines of Japanese modernity. |
Contributor Bio(s): Lippit, Seiji: - Seiji Lippit is a professor in the department of Asian Languages and Literature at UCLA. He is the author of Topographies of Japanese Modernism (Columbia, 2002). |