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Harvard East Asian Monographs #277
Practices of the Sentimental Imagination: Melodrama, the Novel, and the Social Imaginary in Nineteenth-Century Japan
The history of the book in nineteenth-century Japan follows an uneven course that resists the simple chronology often used to mark the divide between premodern and modern literary history.
By examining the obscured histories of publication, circulation, and reception of widely consumed literary works from late Edo to the early Meiji period, Jonathan Zwicker traces a genealogy of the literary field across a long nineteenth one that stresses continuities between the generic conventions of early modern fiction and the modern novel. In the literature of sentiment Zwicker locates a tear-streaked lens through which to view literary practices and readerly expectations that evolved across the century.
Practices of the Sentimental Imagination emphasizes both qualitative and quantitative aspects of literary production and consumption, balancing close readings of canonical and noncanonical texts, sophisticated applications of critical theory, and careful archival research into the holdings of nineteenth-century lending libraries and private collections. By exploring the relationships between and among Japanese literary works and texts from late imperial China, Europe, and America, Zwicker also situates the Japanese novel within a larger literary history of the novel across the global nineteenth century.
By examining the obscured histories of publication, circulation, and reception of widely consumed literary works from late Edo to the early Meiji period, Jonathan Zwicker traces a genealogy of the literary field across a long nineteenth one that stresses continuities between the generic conventions of early modern fiction and the modern novel. In the literature of sentiment Zwicker locates a tear-streaked lens through which to view literary practices and readerly expectations that evolved across the century.
Practices of the Sentimental Imagination emphasizes both qualitative and quantitative aspects of literary production and consumption, balancing close readings of canonical and noncanonical texts, sophisticated applications of critical theory, and careful archival research into the holdings of nineteenth-century lending libraries and private collections. By exploring the relationships between and among Japanese literary works and texts from late imperial China, Europe, and America, Zwicker also situates the Japanese novel within a larger literary history of the novel across the global nineteenth century.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2006
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February 8, 2023
I have always not been very interested in literary history, since I was under the impression that it simply involved listing literary works in some sort of chronological order while referencing relevant historical events. Zwicker, however, has changed my mind with this mindblowing study of Japanese popular literature from the nineteenth century.
Main takeaway, based on the epilogue, would be how historicisation of a text in accordance with its socio-cultural specificity does not have to be an act that isolates it from other threads of history.
Quite a difficult book with a lot of different vectors to explore (the global history of the novel, reader response theory, statistical methods, ideology, capitalism, very VERY engaging close reading of texts etc.) - definitely worth looking at closely several times. Zwicker's artful writing, though challenging, is an absolute joy to read and think about.
Main takeaway, based on the epilogue, would be how historicisation of a text in accordance with its socio-cultural specificity does not have to be an act that isolates it from other threads of history.
Quite a difficult book with a lot of different vectors to explore (the global history of the novel, reader response theory, statistical methods, ideology, capitalism, very VERY engaging close reading of texts etc.) - definitely worth looking at closely several times. Zwicker's artful writing, though challenging, is an absolute joy to read and think about.
Displaying 1 of 1 review