The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature - (Modern Asian Literature) Abridged by J Thomas Rimer (Hardcover)

About the Book

Book Synopsis

Featuring choice selections from the core anthologies The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From Restoration to Occupation, 1868-1945, and The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature: From 1945 to the Present, this collection offers a concise yet remarkably rich introduction to the fiction, poetry, drama, and essays of Japan's modern encounter with the West. Spanning a period of exceptional invention and transition, this volume is not only a critical companion to courses on Japanese literary and intellectual development but also an essential reference for scholarship on Japanese history, culture, and interactions with the East and West.

Review Quotes

Praise for "The Columbia Anthology of Modern Japanese Literature, Volumes 1 and 2" "An extremely ambitious anthology that fills a serious gap in resources for teaching modern Japanese literature. The translations represent sensitive and highly intelligent responses to some of the key texts of the period and constitute an enormous contribution to the field."--Stephen Snyder, University of California"A rich and comprehensive anthology that includes not only the finest samples of poetry, drama, and prose fiction but also what are often considered marginal, such as political accounts and detective stories.... An immense variety of literary scenes that illustrate stages of modernization in Japan."--Makoto Ueda, Stanford University

About the Author

J. Thomas Rimer is emeritus professor of Japanese literature, theater, and art at the University of Pittsburgh. He has also taught at Washington University in St. Louis and at the University of Maryland, and he served for several years as head of the Asian Division of the Library of Congress. He is the author, coauthor, editor, and translator of several works, including Traditional Japanese Arts and Culture: An Illustrated Sourcebook and A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature.

Van C. Gessel is professor of Japanese literature at Brigham Young University. He is the author of Three Modern Novelists: Soseki, Tanizaki, Kawabata; coeditor of The Showa Anthology: Modern Japanese Short Stories; and translator of six literary works by the Japanese Catholic novelist Endo Shusaku, including The Samurai and Deep River.