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Beyond Brushtalk: Sino-Japanese Literary Exchange in the Interwar Period

Beyond Brushtalk: Sino-Japanese Literary Exchange in the Interwar Period

Description

Beyond Brushtalk explores interactions between Japanese and Chinese writers during the golden age of such exchange, 1919 to 1937. During this period, there were unprecedented opportunities for exchange between writers, which was made possible by the ease of travel between Japan and China during these years and the educational background of Chinese writers as students in Japan. Although the salubrious interaction that developed during that period was destined not to last, it nevertheless was significant as a courageous essay at cultural interaction.

This book will appeal not only to those interested in Sino-Japanese studies, an increasingly important field of study in its own right, but will also appeal to scholars of both Japanese literature and Chinese literature and researchers whose areas of interest correspond to the major writers included in this work such as Lu Xun and Zhou Zuoren on the Chinese side and Tanizaki Junichiro and Hayashi Fumiko on the Japanese side. The relations and resulting literary works involving these major writers are often relatively neglected aspects of their total output and will draw interest from scholars of their work. This book will be accessible to both Sinologists and Japanologists with little background in the corresponding field, and to the generalist possessing an interest in literary exchange.

ISBN

9789622099289

Publication Date

2009

Publisher

Hong Kong University Press

City

Hong Kong

Disciplines

Comparative Literature | East Asian Languages and Societies | History | International Relations

Comments

Description and reviews courtesy of University of Washington Press; cover image courtesy of Hong Kong University Press.

Subject Areas

Chinese literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Japanese literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; China -- Relations -- Japan; Japan -- Relations -- China

Author/Editor Bio

Chris Keaveney is Professor of Japanese Language at Linfield College. He holds a Ph.D. in Japanese and Comparative Literature from Washington University (St. Louis), an M.A. in Japanese Language and Literature from Washington University (St. Louis), and a B.A. in English with a concentration in Creative Writing from Manhattan College.

Reviews

"What I most like about this book is that Keaveney's approach to the cultural exchange between Japan and China in the 1920s and 1930s is neither Sinocentric nor Japancentric . . . it is concerned with the dynamic of cultural interaction and not the 'influence' of one culture on the other. The approach is truly transnational and suggests that modern Chinese literature and its Japanese counterpart are so intertwined that neither can be understood without reference to the other. Keaveney also sets the vitality of these cultural exchanges in the dramatic context of the rising political tension between China and Japan that eventually led to all-out warfare. This book is essential reading for students of both Chinese and Japanese modern literature." - Kirk A. Denton, Ohio State University

"Christopher Keaveney's analysis of Sino-Japanese literary fellowship between the wars breaks new ground in comparative East Asian studies. Set against the standard narrative of surging Japanese militarism and grim Chinese suffering, Keaveney's study of the friendship and affinity that literature can bring to life is both original and oddly heartening." - Margaret Hillenbrand, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, author of Literature, Modernity, and the Practice of Resistance: Japanese and Taiwanese Fiction, 1960-1990

Beyond Brushtalk: Sino-Japanese Literary Exchange in the Interwar Period

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