SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Anyone involved in the critical reading of literature knows that there are numerous ways in which to read a text. In this chapter my critical approach examines the spatial and temporal configurations that can be identified in a literary text. This approach is particularly productive in the case of modern Japanese literature because topographical representations within a text can serve as metaphorical pointers to the traumatic events that have influenced the development of Japanese culture during the modern period. In other words, an exploration of space and time in literature offers insight into the broader social and historical processes by which a sense of being both modern and Japanese has emerged.