FEATURED EVENT


PICTURE THIS | MODERN JAPANESE LITERATURE AND THE VISUAL IMAGINATION WITH DR. ANRI YASUDA
During the late Meiji (1868-1912) and Taishō (1912-1926) periods, the conventions and foundational principles of modern literary writing were still taking shape.
In this talk, Dr. Anri Yasuda will examine how major authors of the time like NATSUME Sōseki and AKUTAGAWA Ryūnosuke—now celebrated as great storytellers of Japanese modernity—experimented with unconventional approaches to narrative. Instead of relying on traditional plots, they created plotless and nonlinear narratives or “story-less stories,” drawing inspiration from the visual arts.
Dr. Yasuda will also explore how the Meiji and Taishō authors’ creative blending of art forms and their focus on aesthetic pleasure as a key element of literature still resonate today—particularly as the role of literature and the broader humanities face renewed scrutiny in a rapidly evolving technological world.

ABOUT THE PRESENTER
Anri Yasuda is an Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of Virginia. She holds MA degrees from Columbia University and Waseda University, and her Ph.D. is from Columbia University. Her research and publications examine the literature and visual arts of Japan from the late nineteenth century to the present, focusing on themes like aesthetic theory and the connections between various artistic mediums, representations of gender, and transnational artistic discourses.
Professor Yasuda’s talk today is based on her monograph Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930 (Columbia University Press, 2024).
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