Japan and the Cosmopolitan Gothic Specters of Modernity [Hardcover]

Japan is imagined routinely in American discourse as a supernatural entity. Gothic tales from these two cultures have been exchanged, consumed, and adapted. Here, Blouin examines a prevalent tendency within the United States-Japan cultural relationship to project anxiety outward only to find shadowy outlines of the self abroad.Introduction: The Specters of a Wandering Mind 1. Ghosts and Spirits in Early Japanology 2. Ghostly Maidens in Sidney McCall's Fiction 3. Japonisme and the Female Gothic 4. Nuclear Criticism and a Deferred Reading of the Toho Terror 5. Japan Inc. and the American Nightmare 6. Atemporality and Communal Ethics in the Films of Shimizu Takashi 7. Difference and Doubt in Christopher Nolan's Inception Conclusion: Haunted Echo Chambers

Blouin's transnational approach is an especially novel, and timely, one; certainly, it is the next stage in Asian Gothic Studies and Blouin engages with (and in many ways, spearheads) its discourse. Blouin's research, coupled with his relatively untrodden line of inquiry, makes this a valuable supplementary work in graduate seminars and for upper-division undergraduate courses. - John Edgar Browning, Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow, Department of Transnational Studies, University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA and co-editor of Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology and The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker

Michael J. Blouin is an assistant professor of English and Humanities at Milligan College.