2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Positioning Tokyo as Global City: Anglo-American Narratives of the New Japanese Capital, 1868 - 1922
| Project/Area Number |
18K12316
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | English literature / travel writing / Japan / tourism |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research project examines British and American accounts of Tokyo, produced between the Meiji Restoration and the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1922. Over the last year, I have continued to develop my research for an eventual monograph, divided into four areas: aesthetics, routes of travel, the status of foreigners, and attitudes to Japanese modernity.
In 2019-20, I published an essay titled “Western Representations of Mount Fuji in the Nineteenth Century” in a Showado Press volume, and gave a talk on “Steamship Tourism and the 'Arrival Scene' in Japan in Nineteenth-Century Travel Narratives” at an "Aesthetics of Oceans" conference (Seikei University). I also organized a panel at the 2019 Liberlit Conference (Seikei University), exploring how non-canonical literature such as travel writing could be used in undergraduate curricula. I have an essay forthcoming (September 2020) in the "Handbook of British Travel Writing" (de Gruyter), on Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" and its reception in Asia.
I used kaken funds to organize a visit by Professor Carrie Shanafelt (Fairleigh Dickinson University), who gave a talk at Sophia on economics and urban space in travel writing, titled "Cugoano's Economics: Urban Space and Labor in an Eighteenth-Century Slavery Narrative". As comparisons with other Asian cities are important, I also wrote an essay on the British traveller to China, Sir William Chambers, forthcoming in an Edinburgh University Press volume. I have also joined the advisory board for a Palgrave series on "Asia, Europe, and Global Connections".
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
The 2020 novel coronavirus has forced the cancellation of several research trips I was planning, and has also led to the postponement of a seminar I was planning for this fall on Western writing about Tokyo from the Meiji period to the present day. It is likely that I will need to ask for an extension of the award, so that the funds designated for international speakers and research trips can be used in a later year. The publication of research outcomes from this project will also be correspondingly delayed. In addition, a 2020 Meiji University conference (Pacific Paratexts, organized by Professor Alex Watson) at which I was planning to speak on Isabella Bird has been postponed.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Over the next year, I will continue research for an eventual monograph on this topic, alongside editing a collection of essays (titled "Pacific Gateways") on nineteenth-century travellers to Tokyo and other Japanese and Pacific cities, provisionally planned for publication in the Palgrave "Asia-Pacific and Literature in English" series. I am also co-writing an essay with Professor Steve Clark (University of Tokyo) for a volume of essays examining the reception of Robinson Crusoe in Asia.
I will also reschedule the cancelled seminar on Western travel writing about Tokyo, provisionally for early 2021, although because of the coronavirus situation it is not possible to fix precise dates yet.
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| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, I have postponed library research trips, and delayed spending on books and conference preparation. The money will be spent on 1) research trips 2) essential books and supplies 3) an international symposium on Western travel writing on Tokyo, to take place at Sophia University. However, due to the current coronavirus situation, it is still difficult to fix a timetable for international travel and conference speakers. It is likely that I will apply next year for an extension of this award so that these funds can be used after the situation improves.
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