WIP-WAC COLLOQUIUM BOOK TALK
READING THE KIMONO
IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY JAPANESE LITERATURE AND FILM
Michiko Suzuki
East Asian Languages and Cultures
Comparative Literature
Often considered an exotic garment of "traditional Japan," the kimono is in fact a vibrant part of Japanese modernity. Reading the Kimono pays close attention to "kimono language"―what these garments communicate within their literary, historical, and cultural contexts-to illuminate this once powerful shared vernacular and achieve new ways of reading both narratives and objects. In today's talk, I focus specifically on The Makioka Sisters (Sasameyuki, 1943-48), considered Tanizaki Jun'ichirō's masterpiece, and two of its film adaptations, one directed by Abe Yutaka in 1950 during the U.S. Occupation, and the other, directed by Ichikawa Kon in 1983.
Oct 10 (Thurs)
5:00-6:30PM
Sproul 912
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Michiko Suzuki is professor of Japanese and comparative literature. She is also the author of Becoming Modern Women: Love and Female Identity in Prewar Japanese Literature and Culture (Stanford University Press). She writes on issues associated with modernity, gender, sexuality, sexology, women writers and material culture.
WIP-WAC stands for:
Works-In-Progress/Works-Already-Completed
The Sproul Hall Wip-Wac Colloquium is an informal presentation series for faculty and graduate students to share work in progress or work already completed in a collegial and productive atmosphere. Presentations are generally held on Thursday afternoons and followed by dinner and/or drinks at a local venue of the presenter's choice. All welcome!
Interested in sharing your work?
Please contact Michael Dylan Foster (mdfoster@ucdavis.edu).
