Thoughts on "Japanese-Language Literature"

Abstract

This short essay examines the concept of “Japanese-language literature” (Nihongo bungaku), exploring its relation to the more conventional term “Japanese literature” (Nihon bungaku) in Anglophonic scholarship. In so doing, it presents a few examples of recent scholarship that has used this distinction to make significant advances in our understanding not only of the breadth of literary production, but also of problematic assumptions that have underlaid much scholarship to date.

Keywords

• Japanese-language literature
• (ethno-)nation-states
• norms
• deviation
• compensatory function