The stone-cold coolest Professor at Wesleyan, Miri Nakamura, is giving a lecture on Ueda Akinari this Thursday!
Blurrb:
Akinari (1734-1809) was a writer, poet, a medical doctor, and a scholar of the nativist movement in Edo period Japan. One of his most famous works, Tales of Moonlight and Rain (1776) is often seen as one of Japan’s greatest works of prose fiction that surrounds the theme of the supernatural. Ghosts, demons, snake women, and bodily transformations—these figures inspired later writers of fantastic fiction and continue to haunt the imagination of contemporary writers as well. This talk will discuss how Akinari’s seemingly “non-realistic” or “fictional” elements are tied to his philosophy on nativism—a proto-nationalist movement that aimed to seek a “Japan” untainted by foreign (mainly Chinese) influences.
Thursday, 4:30 @ The Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies
Trust me, it will kick ass.