Five Japanese Works for the Age of the Covid-19 Virus

In this short article, Professor Stephen Dodd shares his expertise on Japanese literature and invites you to read a selection of his recommendations best suited for the times we find oursleves in now.

Click the PDF icon below to read.

Professor Stephen Dodd is a translator and an expert academic in the field of Japanese literature. After teaching briefly at UC Santa Barbara (1993), he became Assistant Professor in Japanese Literature at Duke University (1993-94). From 1994, he has been teaching at SOAS, University of London, where he was Professor of Japanese Literature until 2019. He has lectured on a long list of courses over the years, including various aspects of modern Japanese literature, such as women’s writing, the development of a modern self-identity, and literary representations of the city. His research interests include gender studies and translation studies. Among recent publications are The Youth of Things: Life and Death in the Age of Kajii Motojiro (2014); and “Space and Time in Modern Japanese Literature” in Hutchinson, Racheal and Morton, Leith Douglas (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature (2016).

His most recent literary translation is Life For Sale (Inochi urimasu, 1968; 2019) by Yukiko Mishima.