The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction

This book looks at modernity in Japanese literary culture as a continuing historical dynamic rather than as merely the product of the intense Westernization of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Comparing readings from the eleventh to the twentieth centuries, Washburn argues that modernity in Japan can be understood in terms of cultural conflict-not only Japan versus the West but also Japan's present versus its past. "An ambitious and courageous effort to address the question of what constitutes the 'modern' in Japanese literary history and how it relates to what is 'Japanese.' An important contribution to the field."-Ken K. Ito, University of Michigan "The book . . . covers an impressive range of authors and topics sensitively and eloquently. Washburn's familiarity with his materials is considerable, so his chapters might serve as intelligent introductions to representative writers and texts."-Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Free University, Berlin, Modern Language Quarterly