Limit search to available items
Book Cover
E-book
Author Blouin, Michael J

Title Japan and the cosmopolitan gothic : Specters of modernity
Published Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2013

Copies

Description 1 online resource (222 pages) 10 black and white, halftones
Contents Cover; Contents; List of Figures; Acknowledgments; Introduction: The Specters of a Wandering Mind; 1 Ghosts and Spirits in Early Japanology; 2 Ghostly Maidens in Sidney McCall's Fiction; 3 Japonisme and the Female Gothic; 4 Nuclear Criticism and a Deferred Reading of the Toho Terror; 5 Japan Inc. and the American Nightmare; 6 Atemporality and Communal Ethics in the Films of Shimizu Takashi; 7 Difference and Doubt in Christopher Nolan's Inception; Conclusion: Haunted Echo Chambers; Notes; Bibliography; Index
Summary Japan is imagined routinely in American discourse as a supernatural entity. Gothic tales from these two cultures have been exchanged, consumed, and adapted. Here, Blouin examines a prevalent tendency within the United States-Japan cultural relationship to project anxiety outward only to find shadowy outlines of the self abroad. In American discourse, Japan is routinely imagined as a supernatural entity. Gothic tales from these cultures are exchanged, adapted, and consumed. By analyzing this phenomenon, in texts ranging from those of Lafcadio Hearn to the films of Shimizu Takashi, Blouin explores the relationship between the two countries as well as the layers of complexity that accompany constructions of foreignness. Specifically, in response to the rise of a "Global Gothic," Blouin interprets these unsettling works to be evidence of a "cosmopolitan Gothic," one that refuses satisfactory enclosure and advocates a turn inward to re-invigorate dialogues upon the world stage
Review: "Blouin's transnational approach is an especially novel, and timely, one; certainly, it is the next stage in Asian Gothic Studies and Blouin engages with (and in many ways, spearheads) its discourse. Blouin's research, coupled with his relatively untrodden line of inquiry, makes this a valuable supplementary work in graduate seminars and for upper-division undergraduate courses."--John Edgar Browning, Arthur A. Schomburg Fellow, Department of Transnational Studies, University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA and co-editor of Speaking of Monsters: A Teratological Anthology and The Forgotten Writings of Bram Stoker
Notes Michael J. Blouin is Assistant Professor in English and the Humanities at Milligan College, USA. His previous works have appeared in peer-reviewed journals including Extrapolation and the Journal of American Studies
Electronic book text
Epublication based on: 9781137305213, 2013
Introduction: The Specters of a Wandering Mind 1. Ghosts and Spirits in Early Japanology 2. Ghostly Maidens in Sidney McCall's Fiction 3. Japonisme and the Female Gothic 4. Nuclear Criticism and a Deferred Reading of the Toho Terror 5. Japan Inc. and the American Nightmare 6. Atemporality and Communal Ethics in the Films of Shimizu Takashi 7. Difference and Doubt in Christopher Nolan's Inception Conclusion: Haunted Echo Chambers
Subject American literature -- Japanese influences
American literature -- History and criticism -- 20th century
Art, American -- Japanese influences.
Cultural studies -- Japan.
POLITICAL SCIENCE -- Public Policy -- Cultural Policy.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Anthropology -- Cultural.
SOCIAL SCIENCE -- Popular Culture.
Society.
American literature
American literature -- Japanese influences
Art, American -- Japanese influences
Literature
Motion pictures
SUBJECT Japan -- In literature. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069589
Japan -- In motion pictures. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85069590
Subject Japan
Genre/Form Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 1137305223
9781137305220