Nakagami, Japan: Buraku and the Writing of Ethnicity

(Paperback)

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How do you write yourself into a literature that doesn't know you exist This was the conundrum confronted by Nakagami Kenji (19461992), who counted himself among the buraku-min, Japan's largest minority. His answer brought the traditions of buraku writing into the high culture of Japanese literature for the first time and helped establish him as the most canonical writer born in postwar Japan.

Reviews

"Anne McKnights proposal that we understand Nakagamis writings in terms of a parallax vision immediately resonates in the mind of anyone familiar with his works: it is an approach that finally allows Nakagami to be Nakagami. We know that we need to get outside the framework of national literary studies, but that is a task easier said than done. McKnight goes a good deal of the way toward showing us what is to be done now in the study of both Japanese literature and minority cultures." Michael K. Bourdaghs, University of Chicago

Author Bio

Anne McKnight is assistant professor of East Asian languages and cultures and comparative literature at the University of Southern California.