Writing Home

“In a welcome addition to the growing number of theme-based studies of modern Japanese literature, Stephen Dodd takes up the topic of literary representation of the furusato, what he calls the native place, in fiction published between the mid-Meiji and early Showa period. The theme is a particularly fascinating one since none of the four major authors discussed—Kunikida Doppo, Shimazaki Toson, Sato Haruo, and Shiga Naoya—presents the native place as merely an idyllic site to which the weary urban writer turns for replenishment. Indeed, the beauty of Dodd’s study lies in its emphasis on the dynamic relationship that exists between these authors’ urban experiences and their creative remembering of the past. In each case, it is the city that mediates, to varying degrees, the authors’ representation of home.”—Davinder Bhowmik, Journal of Japanese Studies