2023 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The Birth of Women Writers: Authorship, Publishing, and Translation in Modern Japan
| Project/Area Number |
21K12931
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| Research Institution | Waseda University |
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Principal Investigator |
由尾 瞳 早稲田大学, 文学学術院, 准教授 (70791656)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2021-04-01 – 2025-03-31
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| Keywords | 日本文学 / ジェンダー研究 / 翻訳研究 / メディア研究 |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The proposed research project examines how the journalistic category of the “woman writer” (joryu sakka) developed in the Japanese literary publishing world from the 1890s to the 1930s, rooted in newly founded literary journals and newspapers. Central to the development of this gendered authorial identity was the translation of various western works and concepts that provided idealized models for women to emulate. Each chapter explores a key shift in the dominant conception of “women’s literature” and image of the “woman writer” in the publishing industry and popular imagination in Japan from the 1890s to the 1930s. In this context, Japanese female authors took an active role in responding to, shaping, and challenging this “woman writer” identity in the media and through their literary work. Their efforts reveal that, far from passive subjects in this discourse, women categorized as joryu sakka were active agents that defined on their own terms what it meant to be writing as a woman in modern Japan.
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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
During AY2023, I made significant progress on my monograph, The Birth of Women Writers: Authorship, Publishing, and Translation in Modern Japan. As a visiting scholar at the Harvard-Yenching Institute (August 2022 to July 2023) and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University (August 2023 to July 2024), I conducted research using the Harvard Yenching Library, collaborated with scholars in the area, and presented research findings at invited talks. I also took part in a roundtable panel at the Association for Asian Studies annual conference in March 2024.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
From April to July 2024, I will continue as a visiting scholar at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University. Following my return to Japan in August 2024, I plan to make progress on my monograph based on research conducted during my stay at Harvard. I aim to complete the revision of my manuscript and submit a book proposal to a university press by February 2025.
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