Modern Japanese Literary Studies

Edited by Seth Jacobowitz & Jonathan Eran Abel

Subjects: Literary Studies, Modern Literature, Asian Literature, Asian Studies, Japan
Paperback : 9780472057955, 272 pages, 1 illustration, 6 x 9, March 2026
Hardcover : 9780472077953, 272 pages, 1 illustration, 6 x 9, March 2026
Open Access : 9780472905720, 272 pages, 1 illustration, 6 x 9, March 2026
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.12899731
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Table of Contents

Explores new directions in modern Japanese literature

Table of contents

List of Contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Stating the Field, Seth Jacobowitz and Jonathan E. Abel 
Part I: Negotiating Disciplinary Formation  
1.    Between the Margins and the Mainstream: Modern Japanese Women Writers and Evolving Trends in North American Japanese Literature Scholarship, Rebecca Copeland  
2.    The Inclusion of Okinawa in Japanese Literary Studies, Davinder Bhowmik 
3.    Do Black Lives Still Matter to Japanese Literary Studies? William H. Bridges IV 
4.    Ecocritical Precedent, Present, and Possibility in Japanese Literary Studies, Jonathan L. Pitt 
5.     Comixing Frameworks: Rethinking the Euro-American Critical Paradigm from the Perspective of Manga Studies, Adam Kern 
6.    Approaches to Researching and Teaching Manga as Literature, Deborah Shamoon 
Part II. The Question of Language 
7.    World Literature and Japanese-Language Literature, Hideto Tsuboi  
8.    The History and Present of Japanophone Literature: Migration, Border Crossing, and Materiality, Hibi Yoshitaka
9.    Modern Japanese Literature and Sinitic Literary Traditions, Matthew Fraleigh  
10.    Literature and the Cultural Politics of Immigration: Between Lee Hoesung and  Yang Yi in the “Era of the Immigrant,” YoungRan Kō (trans. Seth Jacobowitz) 
11.    Translation and the Crisis of Relevancy in Japanese Studies, Jeffrey Angles  
Part III: Institutional Responses to the Field 
12.    The Many What-ifs of Literary Urbanism: A European Perspective, Gala Maria Follaco 
13.    The Problem of Scale in Japanese Literary Studies, John Whittier Treat 
14.     Signposts for the Non-Specialist: Thoughts on a Renewed View of the State of Modern Japanese Literary Studies, Christopher Lupke 
 

Description

Modern Japanese Literary Studies brings together a broad range of interdisciplinary and institutional perspectives on the state of the field and presses for overdue recognition that Japanese literature is not only a national or East Asian literature, but also deserves equitable representation in the humanities. Modern Japanese literature today is read in unison with colonial and postcolonial literature, women’s literature, LGBTQ+ literature, diasporic literatures, Indigenous literatures, visual cultures, and disability studies, and has made innovative contributions across the humanities.
Bringing together sixteen scholars from North America, Asia, and Europe, this volume addresses Japan’s place in global modernity and world literature; the changing definition of the literary within the national canon and area studies configurations; the increased prominence of manga and visual media studies; heightened sensitivity to issues of race, gender, sexuality, and LGBT studies; and the advent of ecocriticism, among other emerging paradigms. The primary objective of this book is to assess the field’s study, teaching, research, and cataloging practices and identify challenges and opportunities for growth that lie ahead for the field amidst the ongoing crises that are reshaping the contemporary academic landscape.

Seth Jacobowitz is Assistant Professor in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Texas State University. 
Jonathan E. Abel is Professor of Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Pennsylvania State University.

"Modern Japanese Literary Studies covers a wide range of topics on the study of modern Japanese literature and its relationship with various disciplinary approaches, from feminist studies to environmental studies to Sinitic literature in modern Japan. Within this impressive breadth, the book is remarkably cohesive."

- Rebecca Suter, University of Oslo

“This book of impassioned essays by erudite scholars who have dedicated their careers to expanding the parameters of modern Japanese literary studies offers a detailed overview of the field‘s germinal biases and later productive entanglements with other disciplinary fields, including ethnic and feminist studies, environmental and translation studies, media studies, and more. It ultimately convinces one of the importance of non-West and literary humanities in this moment.”

- Christine Marran, University of Minnesota

“This riveting volume conducts a chorus of in-situ witness accounts of how modern Japanese literature has evolved as a diverse field—a chorus that reverberates with urgency to fill gaps in scholarship and sustain momentum for innovation, frustration with the status quo, and trepidation about emergent challenges.”

- Atsuko Sakaki, University of Toronto

“Across fourteen chapters, Modern Japanese Literary Studies offers a bracing, sober, critical, and ultimately inspiring overview of an area of intellectual inquiry that really can’t be described, anymore, as ‘minor.’ Rooted in the individual perspectives of scholars and teachers whose research spans a variety of issues and themes, the essays are as thought-provoking for specialists as they are accessible to newcomers to the field. It’s a testament to the editors that the collection leaves one wanting even more.”

- Michael Emmerich, UCLA
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