Books in the Modern Asian Literature Series series

This comprehensive anthology collects works of fiction, poetry, drama, and essay-writing from a pivotal time in Japanese history. In addition to their literary achievements, the texts reflect the political, social, and intellectual changes that occurred in Japanese society during this period, including exposure to Western ideas and literature, the rise of nationalism, and the complex interaction of traditional and modern forces. The volume offers outstanding, often new translations of classic texts by such celebrated writers as Nagai Kafu, Shimazaki Toson, Natsume Soseki, Kawabata Yasunari, and Yosano Akiko. The editors have also unearthed works from lesser-known women writers, many of which have never been available in English. Organized chronologically and by genre within each period, the volume reveals the major influences in the development of modern Japanese literature: the Japanese classics themselves, the example of Chinese poetry, and the encounter with Western literature and culture. Modern Japanese writers reread the classics of Japanese literature, infused them with contemporary language, and refashioned them with an increased emphasis on psychological elements. They also reinterpreted older aesthetic concepts in light of twentieth-century mentalities. While modern ideas captured the imagination of some Japanese writers, the example of classical Chinese poetry remained important for others. Meiji writers continued to compose poetry in classical Chinese and adhere to a Confucian system of thought. Another factor in shaping modern Japanese literature was the example of foreign works, which offered new literary inspiration and opportunities for Japanese readers and writers. Divided into four chapters, the anthology begins with the early modern texts of the 1870s, continues with works written during the years of social change preceding World War I and the innovative writing of the interwar period, and concludes with texts from World War II. Each chapter includes a helpful critical introduction, situating the works within their literary, political, and cultural contexts. Additionally, there are biographical introductions for each writer.

Taneda Santoka's poetry attracted limited notice during his lifetime (1882-1940), but there has been a remarkable upsurge of interest in his life and writings. Including 245 poems and selected diary excerpts, For All My Walking makes Santoka's work available to English-speaking readers.

No modern Japanese writer was more idolized than Shiga Naoya. This work showcases the art of this writer who is often called "the god of the Japanese short story."

Based on his sojourn from Japan to Washington State, Michigan, and New York City in the early years of the twentieth century, these stories -- at last available in English -- represent a classic account of turn-of-the-century America by one of the greatest Japanese writers of the modern era.

Offers an overview of 20th-century writing from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Containing stories from the colonial period in Taiwan, literature by Tibetan authors, samplings from the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, and others, this book gives an introduction to Chinese society and culture.

These poems -- more than a hundred haiku, several tanka, and three kanshi -- are arranged chronologically within each genre, revealing the development of Masaoka Shiki's (1867-1902) art and the seamless way in which he wove his life and illness into his poetry. Watson's introduction deftly explores the course of Shiki's life and places him in relation to Japanese history, literature and thought.

Offers an overview of 20th-century writing from China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Containing stories from the colonial period in Taiwan, literature by Tibetan authors, samplings from the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution, and others, this book gives an introduction to Chinese society and culture.

Three plays by one of contemporary Japan's most prominent writers-Involuntary Homicide, The Green Stockings, The Ghost is Here-translated for this volume reveal Kobo Abe's deep love of absurdity in the face of universal concerns.

Includes various literary, personal, and journalistic responses to the events in the mid-twentieth-century Chinese society. This work reflects the diversity, liveliness, humor, and cosmopolitanism of women's writing from the period. It also reveals the ways in which women writers imagined and inscribed new meanings to Chinese feminism.

Like haiku, tanka is a short, classical verse form that has attracted considerable attention in this century. This is the first collection of modern tanka available in English.