Japan's introduction to Western literature came though American literature, as things European were imported to Japan via the United States. Prior to World War II, the Japanese read such writers as Washington Irving, Poe, and Hawthorne, partly to practice their English. Today these writers are less popular in Japan, but younger Japanese scholars are turning more and more attention to Herman Melville. This book is the first English-language volume of Japanese scholarship on Melville. With chapters contributed by the leading scholars in Japan, it presents a variety of attitudes from the traditional to the new.
Following the introduction, the volume opens with a chapter by Kenzaburo Ohashi on Melville's reception in Japan. The next chapter discusses the literary interaction between Hawthorne and Melville afterMoby-Dick, and is followed by two chapters onMoby-Dick. Chapter 5 discusses Melville's transcendentalism. Additional chapters cover Israel PorterThe Confidence Man,
Clarel,
Melville's later poetry, andBilly Budd. The work concludes with a bibliographical essay on Japanese scholarship and includes a full subject index.
KENZABURO OHASHI is a leading Melville scholar and professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, and lecturer at Ferris Women's University in Yokohama. In addition to his works written in Japanese, he is the author of
Native Soiland the
World Beyond: William Faulkner and Japanese Novelists(1984).
Melville in Japan: Reception Among Writers and Critics by Kenzaburo Ohashi
The Literary Interaction between Hawthorne and Melville after Moby-Dick by Ginsaku Sugiura
A Bird in an Out-Of-Joint Time: Captain Ahab in Moby-Dick by Arimichi Makino
Moby-Dick as a Mosaic by Toshio Yagi
Melville's Transcendentalism in the Context of His Time by Masayuki Sakamoto
Israel Potter and its Ideological Contamination by Kazuko Fukuoka
A Sweet Charity for Melville the Confidence Man by l³÷
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