Association for Japanese Literary Studies - Meeting #31

Dates: May 10 - 11, 2024
Location: Yale University
Henry R. Luce Hall (34 Hillhouse Avenue)

This conference is open only to accepted participants and is no longer accepting applications. 

The 31st annual conference of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies will be held at Yale University in New Haven, CT on May 10-11, 2024. This year the main theme will be genre. From waka poetry to the I-novel, from war tales to historical fiction, from diaries to essays, Japanese literature abounds in genres. Scholarship on genres has thrived too, with many excellent studies covering both classic and modern genres. Some studies examine the theme, form, and material format of individual genres, others focus on the reception, social life, or ideological implications of genres. Yet there are aspects of established genres that remain underexplored or emerging genres in need of more scholarly attention. Building on the already thriving scholarship on genre, we can revisit basic questions about genre or explore new theoretical frameworks for understanding genre and Japanese literature. Scholars working in any period or on any kind of literary materials (broadly understood) are invited to submit papers. Themes that panels and papers may address include, but are not limited to, the following:

What makes a genre?
Who makes a genre? Is it writers, readers, or perhaps editors and publishers?
What does the Japanese context add to existing theories on genre?
What are the terms used for “genre” and literary categories in Japanese scholarship?
Writers and artists and their views on the conventions and constraints of genre.
The lives of global genres in Japan vs. Japanese local genres and their international reception.
Minor genres such as miraiki, keizai shōsetsu, literary biographies etc.
New genres such as web shōsetsu and isekai.
Sinitic genres.
Relation between genre and medium (periodicals, internet platforms etc.).
Genre and various performance traditions.
Popular genres and adaptations into film, television shows, or games.
Trends in the English translation of Japanese genres.
The pedagogy of genres.
Genres and the distinction between highbrow and popular literature.

Contacts

Dr. Luciana Sanga
Research Scholar and Lecturer, Council on East Asian Studies
luciana.sanga@yale.edu

Dylan Siegel,
Program Coordinator, Council on East Asian Studies
dylan.siegel@yale.edu

Visa Applications

If you need an invitation letter for visa application, please provide your personal particulars to the meeting contact person: name, travel document number, intended stay period in case you want longer stay. If there are additional requirement from the Visa office of your applying Embassy/Consulate, please send such requests to us. Invitation letters will be issued through Dr. Kathy Rupp, Director of the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University. (Note:  Yale University is the inviting body and cannot serve as your guarantor.)

New Haven Dining Recommendations

New Haven is home to a vibrant food scene and, of course, somewhat famous for its New Haven-style Apizza. Below is a non-exhaustive list of restaurants that we recommend for your time in New Haven. 

This conference is hosted by the Council on East Asian Studies with additional generous support from The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund and The Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale.