Sirens of the Western Shore
Subtitle: Westernesque Women and Translation in Modern Japanese Literature
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: October 24, 2006
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 344
ISBN-13: 9780231137867
Subjects: Novels, other prose & writers: 19th century; Novels, other prose & writers: from c 1900 -; Literature - Classics / Criticism; History and criticism; Literary Criticism; Japanese; ASIA; Western influences; Asian - General; General; Literary Criticism & Collections / Asian; 1868-; Japanese literature; Women in literature
First sentence: In its broadest sense, exoticism is a mode of experiencing and manifesting otherness; how we define the term beyond this point will affect how we apprehend difference, self and other, and the kinds of exchange that can take place between the two.
Description: Introduces a new archetype in the study of modern Japanese literature: the "Westernesque femme fatale," an alluring figure who is ethnically Japanese but evokes the West in her physical appearance, lifestyle, behavior, and, most important, her use of language.  She played conspicuous roles in landmark works of modern Japanese fiction and theater.
Table of contents: title: Introduction; title: Part One: Foreign Letters, the Vernacular, and Meiji Schoolgirls; title: Chapter 1.  Translation as Origin and the Originality of Translation; title: Chapter 2.  Meiji Schoolgirls in and as Language; title: Part Two: Tayama Katai and the Siren of Vernacular Letters; title: Chapter 3.  Portrait of the Naturalist as a Young Exote; title: Chapter 4.  Literary Desire and the Exotic Language of Love: From "Shôshijin" to *Jokyôshi*; title: Chapter 5.  Haunting the Laboratory of Vernacular Style: The Sirens of "Shôjobyô" and *Futon*; title: Part Three: Staging the New Woman: The Spectacular Embodiment of "Nature" in Translation; title: Chapter 6.  Setting the Stage for Translation; title: Chapter 7.  Gender Drag, Culture Drag, and Female Interiority; title: Final Reflections:  Gender, Cultural Hierarchy, and Literary Style