2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
"Utopia" in Contemporary American Literature
| Project/Area Number |
20K12951
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Keio University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2023-03-31
|
| Keywords | science fiction / utopian / dystopia / catastrophe / labor / SF |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
Due to the pandemic, progress on this project continued to be delayed. However, I was able to make one research trip, during which I visited the archives of science fiction and dystopian author Octavia Butler (which are housed in the Huntington Library in Pasadena, CA) and science fiction and utopian author Ursula Le Guin (which are in the Knight Library at the University of Oregon, in Eugene, Oregon). My research at the latter archives was influential in a presentation I gave to a meeting of the Kanto branch of the English Literary Society of Japan in November 2021, titled "Work in Ursula K. Le Guin's 'The Dispossessed.'"
I also gave a presentation in June 2021 about utopian elements in the work of Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa titled "Reading Kenji Miyazawa after 3.11: Region, Utopia, and Modernity." Finally, in November of 2021, I also published my first peer-reviewed article on the concept of utopia in "Utopian Studies," which was titled, "Accumulating and Realizing the Radical Potential of Catastrophe in Karen Tei Yamashita's 'Through the Arc of the Rain Forest.'"
|
| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many international academic conferences have been cancelled. In addition, because of travel restrictions I have been unable to do as much archival work as planned.
|
| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
As nations begin lowering pandemic restrictions and more conferences resume their ordinary schedules, I hope to also advance my research more consistently. I have applied to make presentations at conferences in the summer and fall. I am also preparing two articles and one book review for journal submission in the coming months. Finally, I hope to make another research trip to the United States in either the summer or fall.
|
| Causes of Carryover |
Due to the pandemic, I was only able to make one research trip this year. In addition, several of the international conferences I had planned on attending were cancelled due to the coronavirus. As a result, I would the remainder of the funding from this year to be carried over into the next year, when I am hoping to be able to travel more and conduct further research.
|
Research Products
(3 results)
