Engagements with Modern Japanese Literature

Engagements with Modern Japanese Literature offers an accessible introduction to the development of modern Japanese literature from the Meiji period (1868-1912) to contemporary Japan. It combines literary history and literary analysis to provide an overview as well as in-depth understanding of literary development in the past 150 years.

Modern Japanese literature includes an abundant body of work that allows readers to gain insight into the literary, cultural, social, historical, and political development of modern Japan. Angela Yiu begins by exploring the voices of modernity in Meiji literature, including the work of Higuchi Ichiyō, Izumi Kyōka, Natsume Sōseki, and others. Yiu then turns to utopianism and modernism in Taishō and Prewar Literature (1912-1936), and considers Shirakaba-ha writers. The book also looks at women in war and postwar Literature (1926-1952), examining a wide range of authors including Ishikawa Jun, Sata Ineko, Hayashi Fumiko, and Sakaguchi Ango. It provides rich insight into the legacy of six major writers from 1950-1970, including the two Nobel Prize laureates of Kawabata Yasunari and Ōe Kenzaburō, as well as Mishima Yukio, Enchi Fumiko, Abe Kōbo, and Ishimure Michiko. It concludes by focusing on literature in contemporary Japan from 1989 to the present, offering fascinating insight into the work of Murakami Haruki, Tawada Yōko, Mizumura Minae, and many others.

Consistently structured, each chapter introduces key concepts and literary developments; detailed analysis of selected authors and major works; and helpful bolding throughout. It also features an invaluable glossary, lists of useful resources, major publications and events, and a bibliography of Further Reading. Written with the dual purposes of a teaching resource and an introductory guide, this is an essential text for students and teachers of Japanese literature and culture.

Angela Yiu is Professor of Modern Japanese Literature in the Faculty of Liberal Arts at Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan. Her research interests include war and postwar art and literature, women writers, and contemporary literature. Her publications include Literature in Heisei Japan, 1989-2019 (2024).