Japanese Studies in China: Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Orientalism / The Chinese Fantasy of Taisho Japan

Author: (Japanese) Daisuke Nishihara
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: This book takes Kafu Nagai as an example to examine the discourse of Japanese Orientalism centered around the Taisho era. Orientalism emerged in the Western world in the late 18th century. Edward Said, an American comparative literature scholar, published "Orientalism" in 1978, sharply critiquing the literature, art, and academic works of Western countries that portrayed the East. This perspective also influenced modern Japan's views on other Asian countries, thereby shaping the Japanese perception of China, which was shaped by Western-originated Orientalism. The author will provide a detailed analysis of how and how Japanese Orientalism discourse developed and spread in this book. Although Kafu Nagai was a world-renowned literary giant, his works related to China only began to attract academic attention recently. Nagai visited mainland China twice in 1918 and 1926, and wrote over a dozen travel essays, novels, and short stories. The "China interest" pioneered by Nagai once became fashionable, exerting a significant influence on contemporary Japanese writers such as Kafu Nagai, Sadamu Sato, and Kikuzo Kinoshita. However, regretfully, among Japanese scholars who study modern Japanese literature, few are proficient in Chinese. Based on Said's theory of Orientalism, this book not only analyzes the Orientalist discourse in Nagai's works but also extensively incorporates materials from both Japan and China, providing as thorough an examination as possible of Nagai's two trips to China.