Inventing the Classics Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature

"Inventing the Classics fills a major gap in Japanese literary studies in its presentation of ten original, sophisticated, and cogently argued essays on the process of the construction of 'Japanese literature' as it is known today. The volume combines a richly detailed historical approach to the study of canon formation with a nuanced theoretical discussion of the relevance of canon formation to the formation of a Japanese cultural and national identity. It also sheds important light on the changing socio-political function of specific works and genres."-Janet Walker, Rutgers University "The collection presents a truly significant contribution to the study of Japanese literature. . . . All the essays are solidly researched and lucidly written, and the volume is certain to be widely used and cited."-Journal of Asian Studies

Haruo Shirane is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University. His most recent book is Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho (Stanford, 1998). Tomi Suzuki is Associate Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University. She is the author of Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity (Stanford, 1996).