From: Atsuko Sakaki
sakaki@fas.harvard.edu
Workshop:
(Un)Dutiful Daughters: Modern Japanese Female
Writers and Their Cultural Fathers
I am pleased to announce an event which will be held at Harvard
University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 4 (Saturday), 1996.
Workshop: (Un)Dutiful Daughters: Modern Japanese Female Writers and Their
Cultural Fathers
Place: Room 18, 2 Divinity Avenue, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Time: 9:00 a.m. through 5:00 p.m., May 4 (Sat.)
Most, if not all, modern Japanese women writers have cultivated their
literary styles in order to establish their positions by reading already
canonized male authors and/or asking for their mentorship. Given that,
questions such as the following seem to be meaningful to ask in studies
of modern Japanese literature: How have women writers dealt with the
"anxiety of influence"?; Can we find traces of their "Cultural Fathers"
in texts of the "daughters"?; How have the predominantly male canons of
modern Japanese literature affected them?; Is there any "Women's
Literature" as opposed to "Men's Literature" in modern Japan?; Which women
writers try to demonstrate their "femininity" and which try to erase the
gender distinction?; How have the women writers been reviewed by the
literary establishment that their cultural fathers have constructed?
With such questions that have not been fully answered in mind, we will
explore well-known female writers. A tentative list of the speakers and
their topic authors includes:
Prof. Janice Brown (U of Alberta) Hayashi Fumiko
Prof. Midori Y. McKeon (San Francisco State U)
Ogino Anna
Prof. Sharalyn Orbaugh (UC Berkeley) Oba Minako
Prof. Ann Sherif (Case Western Reserve U) Yoshimoto Banana
This event is made possible by a support of the Edwin O. Reischuer
Institute of Japanese Studies, Harvard University.
Anyone who might be interested in the subject is welcome to attend the
workshop or part thereof. Early May is a best time to visit Cambridge,
too, and we will hope to see many of you there!
Sincerely,
Atsuko Sakaki, Organizer
Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature
Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations
Harvard University
2 Divinity Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138-2020
Fax.: 617-496-6040
Tel.: 617-495-2754
sakaki@fas.harvard.edu
Philip C. Brown 614-292-0904
Department of History, Ohio State University
230 West 17th Avenue, Columbus OH 43210 USA