Event

For the past ten years, Field has been studying the Japanese incarnation of the international proletarian literature movement of the 1920s and 30s, focusing on the work of Kobayashi Takiji (1903-33). Takiji's best-known work, the "Crab-Cannery Ship" (Kani Kōsen) enjoyed a revival in 2008 as remarkable as it was unexpected: it was found to speak to the desperation of many Japanese, especially young would-be workers, subjected to the economic bifurcation of society. Those circumstances continue to hold and have now been exacerbated by the triple disaster of March 11, 2011. The Fukushima nuclear disaster, in particular, has irrevocably altered postwar Japan. What can the movement to which Takiji belonged and his writings bring to the world it has unleashed?

* Center for East Asian Studies Distinguished Lecture