Japanese Literary Theories

This anthology introduces literary theories developed in Japan from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st century. In rendering it in English, the translators have attempted to make visible the conceptual realignments taking place when theories travel back and forth between the West and Japan.

Japanese Literary Theories: An Anthology is the English translation of the 2017 volume edited by Yasusuke Oura (Nihon Bungaku Riron: Ansorojii), which grew from a unique collaboration between scholars of Western literatures and scholars of modern Japanese literature. Its eight thematic chapters on various aspects of literary theory each contain excerpts from representative texts by Japanese intellectuals, discussed against the background of Japan’s ongoing negotiations with foreign ideas. The anthology offers a comprehensive image of the development of Japanese literary theories, from the beginning of the Meiji period in 1868 and up to the present day. The translation of this anthology, another collaborative project, brings to the English-speaking reader heretofore untranslated pieces by Japanese critics, scholars, and creative writers, providing a point of entry into a variety of intellectual discourses from modern and contemporary Japan. It enriches the repertoire of literary theories available in English, while shedding light on the ways in which literature and literary theory travel back and forth within various linguistic spheres, serving as central loci of intellectual negotiation.