Open Talk “Boys be Adventurous: Adventure fiction and Masculinity in Bukyō sekai Magazine and Murayama Kaita’s “Satsujin gyōja”
This talk examines “Satsujin gyōja” (The Murdering Ascetic, 1915), a short story by painter and poet Murayama Kaita by situating it alongside the world of adventure fiction and the discursive construction of masculinity in the early 20th century boys’ magazine, Bukyō sekai. By first exploring the media landscape of Bukyō sekai, this talk will discuss how the magazine engaged with adventure fiction and state ideologies against the backdrop of imperial expansion and “moral panic” surrounding the delinquent student to construct a masculine, chivalrous imperial subject. Situated alongside this paratextual context, this talk will consider how Kaita’s subversive “Satsujin gyōja,” which was published in Bukyō sekai, employs tropes of adventure fiction and archetypes of the delinquent student to queer the construction of a heteronormative masculine subject, and offer an alternative mode of identity not expressly tied to race or nation.
- Day & Time：March 24th, 2023 (Friday), 12:15-13:15
- Venue：Lab (2nd floor of WIHL)
- Language：English
- Participation：Free, We encourage participants who would like to join this event to make a reservation(B) in advance. Reservation
- Presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with support from the Waseda International House of Literature
Lecture
Tanya Barnett
Tanya Barnett is a doctoral candidate in Japanese literature at the University of Hawaiʻi, Mānoa. Her research examines queer narratives of adventure, exploration, and discovery that take place in spaces interior to the nation-state of Japan during the first two decades of the twentieth century.
Facilitator
Eric Siercks
Assistant Professor, Waseda International House of Literature
contact
Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities : [email protected]
