Past IJET - IJET-28 in Columbus
Sessions
The Face of Another Galapagos: Reading Japan Today
What face does Japan present to the world today? News about business and politics gives an important part of the picture, but literature gives a different kind of insight. The term “Galapagos syndrome” is frequently used to describe Japanese technology products so uniquely adapted to local conditions they would not be viable elsewhere. This panel will explore whether something similar is true of Japanese literature, through questions such as: Who are the contemporary writers who matter in Japan, and is their work reaching the rest of the world? What is getting translated, and what is not? How is this decided? Are the same writers being translated for the American, European and Asian markets? Does Japanese writing today reflect a specifically Japanese zeitgeist, isolated from the rest of world literature, or is it part and parcel of global trends? How is Japan being influenced, and what influence does it have elsewhere? Finally, is a new “canon” of contemporary Japanese literature emerging to replace the old trio of Mishima, Tanizaki, and Kawabata?
