Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines how, at the turn of the 19th century, Japanese fiction used melodrama's binary morality–the battle between good and evil–to generate alternative models of family to answer the needs of a modernizing society.
Trade Review"There are many good points about this book. For one thing, it addresses works that have not received the full attention they deserve .... It also continues an important scholarly practice of filling the gaps in our knowledge of the period, of giving us a more rounded sense of the age in which these writers were producing their literature." -- Stephen Dodd *
Journal of Japanese Studies *
"Ito's work on Meiji melodrama is groundbreaking. This book reaches beyond individual texts and illuminates many aspects of Japanese culture and society of the era. It is lucid, smart, and elegantly written." —Ann Sherif, Oberlin College
"This book's approach is entirely original. The translations are fluent and faithful, and the analysis is inspired." -- Richard Torrance * Ohio State University *
Table of ContentsContents @toc4:List of Figures xxx Acknowledgments xxx A Note on Names xxx @@toc2:Introduction: Melodrama and the Family in Meiji Japan 1 1. The Family and the Nation in Hototogisu 000 2. Love and Money in Konjiki yasha 000 3. Gender and Social Aspiration in Chikyodai 000 4. The Traffic in Women and Men in Gubijinso In Place of a Conclusion: Kokoro and the Melodramatic Imagination 000 @toc4:Notes 000 Works CitedBibliography 000 Index 000
