2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Japonisme and Henry Miller: Empirically Proving the Impact of Japan on his Life and Works
| Project/Area Number |
18K12321
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| Research Institution | The University of Kitakyushu |
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Principal Investigator |
WAYNE E.ARNOLD 北九州市立大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (20740624)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | Henry Miller / Japonisme / archive / Literature / Interviews / Kubo Sadajiro / Ueno Shiori / Field research |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Over the course of this last year, research has been rapidly progressing and I now have several articles written using field research from Japan and the United States. A few of these articles have already been published and three more are set for publication this year. The research conducted two years ago, has allowed me to discover groundbreaking connections between Miller and Japan. Interviews from two years ago, have now been published this year. Additionally, thanks to the funding, my graduate student was able to partially translate several journals articles written in Japanese, thus enabling me to more easily incorporate material and research by Japanese scholars. One of the goals is to introduce scholars who cannot read Japanese to the copious amounts of research and articles in Japanese magazine that relate to Miller and Japan. Most exciting is the discovery of several interview that Miller did with Japanese gossip magazines during the 1970s; these interviews have never been translated to English and they contain copious amounts of information about Miller and his impact by Japonisme and Japanese people, more generally.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
Progress has been moving along well due to the fact that I have much support from the Japanese Henry Miller scholars. While there have been no new discoveries of Miller letters in Japan in the last year, I did discover an unpublished introduction for Oe Kenzaburo's "The Silent Cry" that Miller wrote in 1973. This unpublished and unknown introduction, along with the letters to the Japanese publisher, I have now purchased from the original owner. This introduction is incredibly important as it demonstrates that Miller's opinion of Japanese authors was important enough that the publishers contacted Miller to provide the introduction--however, the publishers did not like the introduction and did not use it. The unpublished introduction has been hidden for 50 years until I was able to locate it in England.
Additionally, I presented at three conferences last year and had two articles published. Other articles have been written and are being modified to be fit into a monograph of the work on Miller and Japan.
Due to COVID-19, however, some conferences that I had been accepted to, were cancelled. Especially regretful was the cancellation of the Pop Culture Association international conference for April 2020. This conference would have allowed me to present my research on Miller to a large audience.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Future work includes three more conferences this year. I have been accepted to chair a panel at the NeMLA conference in March of 2021; additionally, I have again been invited to speak at the Henry Miller Society of Japan annual meeting in December.
The next two important projects relate to Miller and the unpublished introduction to Oe Kenzaburo's book. I plan on submitting an article to the PMLA (top journal in literary humanities) for their section "Little Known Documents" as I believe this introduction will prove valuable for Japanese-American literary studies. Second, I will be writing about Mishima Yukio and Henry Miller. 2020 marks the 50th anniversary of Mishima's suicide, on which Miller wrote extensively. With the private letters and archive research I have uncovered, I believe that I can shed new and important light on Miller's interest on Mishima.
Finally, I am moving into the third and last year of the Kakenhi grant and have plans to create a draft of the manuscript concerning Miller and Japonisme. Much of this material will come from the conferences and publications with which I have already participated. I also intend to apply for another Kakenhi grant examining the historical trajectory of Miller research around the world.
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| Causes of Carryover |
This next year I will need to travel to three conferences. Additionally, more books will be purchased and some necessary electronic equipment. There will also be expenses for proof editing for Miller-related Japanese documents.
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