Table Of ContentJAPANESE LITERATURE
(Continued from front flap)
T
Morton devotes two chapters to the
H
celebrated female poet Yosano Akiko, whose
E
verse on childbirth and her unborn children
broke taboos relating to the expression of the A
“Leith Morton adds an exciting and valuable dimension to this field of
female body and sensibility. He also highlights
the writing of contemporary Okinawan nov- criticism by introducing some relatively unknown but important writers l
i
elist O¯shiro Tatsuhiro, whose work springs e
and providing original and stimulating discussions of others who are
from what is for Japanese an exotic subtropi-
n
under-treated but significant. By helping us look at these literary figures
cal landscape and makes symbolic reference
to the otherness at the heart of Japanese in a different light, he adds new layers to a fascinating subject.” W
religiosity. Another significant but equally
overlooked subject is the focus of the final —Susan Napier, Tufts University
chapter, which analyzes the travel writing of i
t
internationally best-selling author Murakami
h
Haruki. Murakami’s great corpus of work
i
includes a one-volume study of the 2000 “The Alien Within is an ambitious project and one that Leith Morton is n
Sydney Olympics, which Morton discusses
ideally placed to carry out. He offers a cogent and persuasive thesis on a
in detail.
topic of inherent interest not only to Japanese literature specialists but
The Alien Within breaks new ground in READERS WORLDWIDE HAVE long been drawn
its treatment of the exotic in modern Japanese to a broader audience as well.” to the foreign, the exotic, and the alien, even
writing and in its discussion of authors and before Freud’s famous essay on the uncanny
work hitherto absent from critical discussions in 1919. Given Japan’s many years of relative
—Mark Williams, University of Leeds
in English. It will be of significant interest to isolation, followed by its multicultural empire,
readers of literature and students of modern these themes seem particularly ripe for explo-
Japanese culture and women’s writing as well ration and exploitation by Japanese writers.
as those fascinated by the occult, Gothic fic- Their literary adventures have taken them
tion, and the exotic. inside Japan as well as outside, and how they
internalized the exotic through the adoption
of modernist techniques and subject matter
forms the primary focus of this book.
The Alien Within is the first book-length
thematic study in English of the alien in
modern Japanese literature and helps shed
Leith Morton is professor at the Tokyo new light on a number of important authors.
Morton examines the Gothic, a form of writing
Institute of Technology. COVER ART: Portrait of Foreigners. A nishikie (colored woodblock M
with strong affinities to Europe and a motif
print) by Utagawa Yoshitora (d. 1880). Waseda University Library. O
R in the fiction of several key modern Japanese
COVER DESIGN: Julie Matsuo-Chun T writers, such as Arishima Takeo. Morton also
O
discusses the translations of Tsubouchi Sho¯yo¯,
N
Japan’s most famous early translator of Shake-
speare, and how this most alien and exotic
author was absorbed into the Japanese literary
Alien Within
and theatrical tradition. The new field of trans-
UNIVERSITY of THE lation theory and how it relates to translating
Shakespeare are also discussed.
HAWAI‘I PRESS
Representations of the Exotic in
LEITH
HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I 96822-1888 www.uhpress.hawaii.edu MORTON Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature
(Continued on back flap)
MortonJACKET2.indd 1 7/16/09 2:00:30 PM
T H E A L I E N W I T H I N
1Mor_i-x.indd i 1/7/09 4:56:16 PM
1Mor_i-x.indd ii 1/7/09 4:56:16 PM
T H E A L I E N W I T H I N
• • • • • • • •
Representations of the Exotic in
Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature
Leith Morton
University of Hawai‘i Press
HONOLULU
1Mor_i-x.indd iii 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
© 2009 University of Hawai‘i Press
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
14 13 12 11 10 09 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Morton, Leith.
The alien within : representations of the exotic in
twentieth-century Japanese literature / Leith Morton.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8248-3292-6 (hard cover : alk. paper)
1. Japanese literature—20th century—History and criticism.
I. Title.
PL726.8.M65 2009
895.6'091—dc22
2008040722
University of Hawai‘i Press books are printed on acid-free
paper and meet the guidelines for permanence and durability
of the Council on Library Resources.
Designed by the University of Hawai‘i Press Production Department
Printed by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group
1Mor_i-x.indd iv 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
C O N T E N T S
Preface • vii
Introduction • 1
1. Translating the Alien • 10
Tsubouchi Shöyö and Shakespeare
2. Naturalizing the Alien • 43
Yosano Akiko’s Revolution in Verse
3. The Demon Within • 73
Yosano Akiko and Motherhood
4. The Gothic Novel • 97
Izumi Kyöka and Tanizaki Jun’ichirö
5. Gothic Stylistics • 126
Arishima Takeo and Melodramatic Excess
6. Female Shamans • 140
Öshiro Tatsuhiro and Yuta
7. History/Fiction/Identity • 155
Öshiro Tatsuhiro and the Uncanny
8. The Alien Without • 178
Murakami Haruki and the Sydney Olympics
Epilogue • 201
Notes • 207
Bibliography • 231
Index • 251
1Mor_i-x.indd v 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
1Mor_i-x.indd vi 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
P R E F A C E
I
have to thank a number of people without whose support and assistance
this book would not have been written. A number of the chapters began life
as papers read at symposia and scholarly conferences held at universities in
Australia, North America, Japan, and Europe. In particular, in Australia I wish
to thank colleagues at the universities of Sydney, Newcastle, and Queensland;
Monash University; and the Australian National University. In addition I want
to thank the staff at the National Library of Australia, where I read an early ver-
sion of Chapter 8 to a 2003 conference on Japan and Australia.
In Europe I should also like to thank colleagues for providing venues where
I was able to read early versions of certain chapters: at the University of Leeds,
London University, and the Open University in Britain; the University of
Bologna in Italy; Leiden University in the Netherlands; and Trier University in
Germany. Also, the members of the Académie du Midi in France have helped
in more ways than I can mention, especially by providing a most hospitable
environment for the various symposia held at Alet-les-Bains in which to try
out my ideas. In Canada, the University of Alberta at Edmonton provided an
early venue for some of my work on Yosano Akiko. In the United States, con-
ferences organized by the Association for Japanese Literary Studies founded by
Sekine Eiji held at Purdue University and the University of Colorado at Boulder
also provided a congenial environment for the development of my research on
Yosano Akiko. Michael Brownstein’s collegial invitation to visit the University
of Notre Dame in Indiana also helped to hone my ideas about Yosano Akiko.
I wish to thank colleagues at the International Research Center for Japanese
Studies (Nichibunken) in Kyoto, whose bimonthly symposia have been of enor-
mous assistance in helping me sharpen my focus and broaden my knowledge.
And I owe a special debt of thanks to my colleagues at the Tokyo Institute of
1Mor_i-x.indd vii 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
viii • Preface
Technology (Tokyo Kögyö Daigaku) who have helped in numerous ways. Also
in Japan, I should like to thank colleagues in Okinawa and Tokyo (at Hösei and
Waseda Universities in particular) for their support for my research on Öshiro
Tatsuhiro, and also Öshiro Tatsuhiro himself, who has shown me the utmost
kindness. To all the staff in these institutions who have been most generous with
their time and resources and also for the fi nancial and other support provided,
I offer my deepest gratitude.
Some individuals have played more prominent roles than others in helping
me to research this book over the last decade, and to these people I must express
my most sincere thanks. In alphabetical order, I thank Hamashita Masahiro,
Hattori Takakazu, Hokama Shuzen, Iguchi Tokio, Inoue Ken, Katsukata-I nafuku
Keiko, Nakahodo Masanori, Sasaki Ken’ichi, and especially Suzuki Sadami. Also
in Japan, I have to express my deep gratitude to my colleague Roger Pulvers at
the Tokyo Institute of Technology, who has helped me in ways too numerous
to mention.
Outside Japan, I wish particularly to thank, in Australia: Yasuko and Barry
Claremont, Hugh Clarke, Alison Broinowski, Garvin Perram (for his friend-
ship and support), Catherine Runcie, Matsui Sakuko, and last but certainly not
least, Alison Tokita. In North America I thank: Janice Brown, Michael Brown-
stein, Charles Ess, Faye Kleeman, Bill LaFleur, Michael Marra, Earl Miner
(lately deceased), Mike Molasky, Tom Rimer, Laurel Rodd, Raj Singh, and
Stephen Snyder. And in Europe my gratitude to: Steve Dodds, Drew Gerstle,
Rachael Hutchinson (then at Leeds University), Grazia Marchianó, Yves Mil-
let, Hans-Georg Möller, Karl-Heinz Pohl, Finn Riedel, Sonja Servomaa (lately
deceased), Stanca Scholz-Cionca, Robert Wilkinson, Mark Williams, and
Günter Wohlfart.
I also want to thank especially my commissioning editor at the University
of Hawai‘i Press, Pamela Kelley, for her continuing and unwavering support
(this is the second book of mine she has edited); also I am grateful to the two
anonymous readers at the University of Hawai‘i Press, whose suggestions much
improved the manuscript. I also owe a large vote of thanks to Margaret Black,
my proof editor at the University of Hawai‘i Press, for the many improvements
she has made to the book. My family has always provided staunch backup, and
this time is no exception—special thanks to my wife, Sachiko, who has put up
with much in assisting and supporting me.
Early versions of Chapters 1, 6, and 7 were published previously in vols. 30
(1998), 35 (2003), and 36–37 (2004–2005) of The Journal of the Oriental Society
1Mor_i-x.indd viii 1/7/09 4:56:17 PM
Preface • ix
of Australia; I would like to express my thanks for permission to republish. Also,
an early version of Chapter 2 appeared previously in The Renewal of Song, pub-
lished by Seagull Books, Calcutta, in 2000. I would like to thank the publisher
for permission to republish. A part version of Chapter 3 appeared in New Essays
in Comparative Aesthetics (2007), edited by Robert Wilkinson; my thanks go to
Robert for the opportunity to publish. Unless stated otherwise, all translations
are my own.
1Mor_i-x.indd ix 1/7/09 4:56:18 PM
