The Clash of Imperialisms: Representation of the Empire of Japan by British Female Writers across Two World Wars

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26884029
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Nara Women's University
• Principal Investigator: Kumojima Tomoe 奈良女子大学, 理系女性教育開発共同機構, 講師 (50737434)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-08-29 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 旅行記研究 / 女性学 / 20世紀 / 帝国主義 / 戦争文学 / 日本：英国：インド

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research investigates the representation of Japan by female travellers and writers in the British Empire across the periods of the two world wars. It outlines its shifts from a humane ally during the First World War to 'formidable fighting machines' through the Japanese imperial scheme with aggressive expansionism in Korea and China. It focuses on three writers, namely Elizabeth Keith, Priyambada Devi, and Ada Elizabeth Chesterton. It examines their writings in terms of gender, race, class, nationality, and occupation at the nexus of political ambitions of the two empires and personal relationships between the writers and their Japanese friends. The research opens up a new archive of long-forgotten writers and their Japan travelogues and contributes to such fields as literary criticism, postcolonial studies, and gender studies.

Free Research Field

英文学