Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar

From Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

2021-02-09 12:00:002021-02-09 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongFrom Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
From Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

Dr. Daniel Poch
(Department of Japanese Studies, The University of Hong Kong)

Date/Time: February 9, 2021 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)
Venue: Conducted via Zoom
Enquiry: ihss@hku.hk

    2021-02-09 12:00:002021-02-09 13:00:00Asia/Hong_KongFrom Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

    Interdisciplinary Lunchtime Seminar
    From Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

    Dr. Daniel Poch
    (Department of Japanese Studies, The University of Hong Kong)

    Date/Time: February 9, 2021 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)
    Venue: Conducted via Zoom
    Enquiry: ihss@hku.hk

      Overview

      Title:

      From Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

      Speaker:

      Dr. Daniel Poch (Department of Japanese Studies, The University of Hong Kong)

      Date/Time:

      February 9, 2021, 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Title:

      From Edo to Sōseki: Emotion, Desire, and the Making of the Novel in Nineteenth-Century Japan

      Speaker:

      Dr. Daniel Poch (Department of Japanese Studies, The University of Hong Kong)

      Date/Time:

      February 9, 2021, 12:00 nn – 1:00 pm (HK time)

      Language:

      English

      Enquiry:

      Abstract

      Why did Natsume Sōseki, today canonized as one of Japan’s most important novelists, start writing novels in the early twentieth century despite his suspicion, if not dislike, of the genre?  The talk explores the clash between premodern and modern conceptions of “literature” within Sōseki’s novels, asking what consequences the intersection of the modern novel with older, didactic conceptions of literature held for his representation of love, desire, and emotion.  It also contextualizes the contradictions inherent in Sōseki’s literary project within the broader contentions surrounding “human emotion” (ninjō) in the medium of the novel in nineteenth-century Japan, across the historical fissures of the early modern-modern transition — the subject of my recently published book Licentious Fictions (Columbia UP, 2020).

      About the Speaker

      Daniel Poch is an Associate Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Hong Kong, specializing in early modern and modern Japanese literature. He earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 2014. His first book, Licentious Fictions: Ninjō and the Nineteenth-Century Japanese Novel, was published by Columbia University Press in 2020. Other recent publications include articles in peer-reviewed journals such as Monumenta Nipponica, Japanese Language and Literature, and Japan Forum, as well as book chapters published in Japanese and Spanish.

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