In the company of men : representations of male-male sexuality in Meiji literature / Jim Reichert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Reichert, Jim (James Robert)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Japanese literature--Meiji period, 1868-1912--History and criticism.

Japanese literature.

Male homosexuality in literature.

Physical Description:

viii, 282 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Stanford, Calif. : Stanford University Press, 2006.

Summary:

In the Company of Men examines representations of male-male sexuality in literature from the Meiji period (1868-1912), the era when Japan embarked on an unprecedented modernization campaign. Because male-male sexuality occupied a prominent place in the literary culture of the preceding Edo period (1600-1868), the issue was of importance to Meiji writers and intellectuals, especially given the stigma attached to male-male sexuality in Europe and America, the "civilized" societies that Japan strove to emulate as it modernized. The heterosexualization of literature thus emerged as a key component of the production of Japanese literary and cultural modernity. At the same time, male-male sexuality also surfaced as an important cultural symbol for segments of society opposed to the push to modernize. In the Company of Men considers how these conflicting attitudes toward male-male sexuality manifested themselves in Meiji literary history.

Contents:

Part I Nanshoku and Early-Meiji Modernity 13

1 Shizu no odamaki and Early-Meiji Nostalgia for Samurai Nanshoku 17

2 Sawamura Tanosuke and Early-Meiji Reinterpretations of Kabuki Nanshoku 36

Part II Nanshoku and Literary Reform 65

3 Tosei shosei katagi and the Institutionalization of Compulsory Male Heterosexuality 69

4 Yamada Bimyo: Historical Fiction and Modern Love 99

Part III Nanshoku and Meiji Neoclassicism 133

5 Samurai Love and Mid-Meiji Masculinity in Koda Rohan's Hige otoko 137

Part IV Nanshoku and the Late-Meiji Novel 163

6 The Love That Dare Not Speak Its Name: Male-Male Desire in Natsume Soseki's Nowaki 167

7 Nanshoku and Naturalism in Mori Ogai's Vita Sexualis 199.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [235]-267) and index.

ISBN:

0804752141

OCLC:

61680838