Writing Histories of Japanese Literature for Western Readers

Organised by Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Research Area 2: „Travelling Matters“.

In the past decade or so, the profile of Japanese literature has shifted along with the role of literature at a global level and as a result of new approaches to translation and a fresh perspective on Japanese culture in the context of changed mediascapes. The history of modern and pre-modern Japanese literature is currently being rewritten in the West, including in Italy, France, Germany, Scandinavia and in the Anglophone region (with ‚Western‘ here referring to European languages). The workshop intends to bring together leading scholars to compare and discuss their concepts, designs and specificities against the backdrop of culture-specific readerships, translation policies, publishers‘ demands and new trends in Japanese literary historiography, etc. The workshop is conceived as a first brainstorming session to inquire into meaningful further meta-research on the mechanisms of representing Japanese (and eventually other) literatures, their underlying mechanisms and consequences for the perception and appreciation of literature in the 21st century.

The project has relevant links to RA 1 with respect to ‚community‘ and ‚communication‘, in terms of exploring modes of conceptualising ‚literary history‘ for different language-based communities and in relation to their ‚object‘ (‚Japanese literature‘). It is situated in RA 2, questioning the genre of literary history as a process of semantic coding and as media. It is central to RA 3 because it addresses historiography (and anthologising) as a practice ‚through which the temporalities of literature are re-written and re-constituted‘, and also to RA 4, as it focuses on canon (re-)formation, the circulation of texts and the economic dimensions of this circulation.

The workshop aims at surveying current trends and concepts, and at identifying pathways for further meta-research on this basis in the context of research questions central to EXC 2020. Ideally, subsequent workshops will lead to a more concrete research engagement and collaboration, including researchers from Eastern Europe.

Preliminary programme

Thursday, 12 October 2023

14:00-14:30 | Registration

14:30-15:00 | Welcome and introduction

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Panel 1 Afternoon Session
Moderation: Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit (Freie Universität Berlin)

15:00-16:00 | Cécile Sakai (Université Paris Cité): How to Write a History of Contemporary Japanese Literature for French Readers? Questioning Historiography, Legitimacy, and Purposes Today

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16:00-16:30 | Coffee break

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16:30-17:30 | John Treat (Yale University): National History After the Nation

17:30-19:00 | Tzvetana Kristeva (ICU Tokyo): Writing Histories of Japanese Literature in Japan

Friday, 13 October 2023

Panel 2 Morning Session

09:30-10:30 | Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit: Outdated and Dispensable? Histories of Japanese Literature for Readers of German

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10:30-11:00 | Coffee break

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11:00-12:00 | Carolina Negri (Università Ca‘ Foscari Venice): In Search of the Classics – The Projekt of a New History of Japanese Literature in Italy

12:00-12:30 | 1 or 2 „Interventions“

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13:00-15:00 | Lunch

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Panel 3 Afternoon Session

15:00-16:00 | Luisa Bienati (Università Ca‘ Foscari Venice): The Project of a New History of Japanese Literature in Italy: Modern and Contemporary Japanese Literature

16:00-17:00 | Daniel Struve (Université Paris Cité): Introducing Early Modern Japanese Literature in France

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17:00-17:30 | Coffee break

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17:30-18:00 | Judit Árokay (Universität Heidelberg): Thoughts on Re-Writing the History of Pre-modern/Classical Japanese Literature for Contemporary German Readers

Saturday, 14 October 2023

Panel 4 Morning Session

09.30-10:30 | Reiko Abe Auestad (Universitetet i Oslo): Japanese Literature in Translation: Tools of Literary Politics in Norway

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10:30-11:00 | Coffee break

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11:00-11:30 | 1 or 2 „Interventions“

11:30-12:30 | Final discussion

Cluster Building
Room 00.05
Otto-von-Simson-Straße 15
14195 Berlin