When Our Eyes No Longer See: Realism, Science, and Ecology in Japanese Literary Modernism (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
by Gregory Golley
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Book Summary Information
Author: Gregory GolleyEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-03-01
ISBN: 0674027949
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
Book Reviews of When Our Eyes No Longer See: Realism, Science, and Ecology in Japanese Literary Modernism (Harvard East Asian Monographs)
Book Review: "Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind"
Summary: 5 Stars
Any literary study that can convincingly and coherently combine themes of eros, empire, and ecology is already off to a good start, and yet that's only the tip of the iceberg with Gregory Golley's "When Our Eyes No Longer See." This is an endlessly fascinating book, offering a radically fresh perspective on Japanese fiction during the 1920' and 1930's. On the most basic level of literary history, Golley uncovers a largely untold tale of the impact of revolutionary scientific concepts (especially but by no means only Einstein's Relativity theory) on several key authors, especially Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, Yokomitsu Riichi, and Miyazawa Kenji. With a historian's acumen he outlines the social history of science's popular reception in early twentieth-century Japan, particularly tracing the mostly introductory science texts from which these authors kept up with cutting-edge scientific developments, while with the keen sensibility of a literary scholar he reveals how the ideas and outlooks they gleaned from these sources helped in part to inspire many of the more experimental (so to speak) aspects of their works, those aspects we tend to associate with literary Modernism. What's more, though, he ably demonstrates with nuanced argument how these aspects, far from being artsy gestures of abstractly avant-garde obscurity, in fact entail a seriously sincere attempt to realistically depict reality (as newly understood) in all of its vast complexity otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
One can't help but suspect that this tells us something profoundly significant about Modernism in general as a worldwide cultural phenomenon, and it's refreshing how Golley is able to successfully handle the sciences and the humanities with proper care here, crossing that fiercely-guarded disciplinary barrier while remaining immune from the excesses so taken to task by, say, Alan Sokal with his elaborate hoax. There is also an increasingly apparent ethical stance invigorating this study, one that manages to be engaged while not harshly strident or preachy, alert to the political consequences of ideas without being reductive or needlessly accusatory. The tone throughout is balanced and pleasantly academic. And very challenging. This is tough reading, NOT deliberately jargon-infested and densely verbose to its own detriment as so many literary studies nowadays, but all the same requiring the reader's full and sustained attention, along with perhaps a healthy dose of coffee and a quiet environment. Prior background in some of these subjects wouldn't hurt either, and is somewhat assumed. And yet the payoff in insight is well worth a little patient effort.
One other point of note, this is (to the best of my knowledge, anyway) one of the very few literary studies in English to take the works of Miyazawa Kenji seriously. He often comes across as a quaint figure, an eccentric author of folksy children's tales--when he's even granted mention at all. Few would even classify him as a Modernist, nor would they be likely to class him with the likes of Tanizaki and Yokomitsu. And yet it becomes vividly apparent from Golley's strikingly original, thoughtfully attentive, and keenly incisive analysis that Miyazawa indeed merits such attention and has much to tell us. The importance of recovering this neglected author then justifies the slightly skewed imbalance of the book, with one chapter each devoted to Tanizaki and Yokomitsu while three full chapters solely address Miyazawa the undiscovered Modernist. Miyazawa's extensive scientific training and more sustained engagement with scientific ideas compared to the prior two also encourages a fuller treatment, according to the themes Golley is pursuing here. So it all makes sense, and yet successfully and fruitfully charts a course beyond the usual borders of the canon without getting lost in a wilderness of faddish ephemera. First-rate scholarship, in short: creative, convincing, and compelling.
So whether your interest is primarily in Modern Japanese Literature or in Literary Modernism and/or History & Philosophy of Science more generally, this is an excellent book you won't want to turn a blind eye to. Highly recommended.
P.S. The literary works discussed in "When Our Eyes No Longer See" are available in English translation as follows:
1. Naomi: A Novel
2. Shanghai: A Novel (Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, 33)
3. Night of the Milky Way Railway (among others)
4. Once and Forever: The Tales of Kenji Miyazawa
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