Dr. Daniel Poch (University of Hong Kong) Public Lecture

“Sexuality and Aesthetic Knowledge in Mori Ōgai’s Literary Fiction”

Event Report

Speaker: Dr. Daniel Poch (University of Hong Kong)
Title: Sexuality and Aesthetic Knowledge in Mori Ōgai’s Literary Fiction
Date: Thursday, June 25, 2026
Attendees: 19

Professor Daniel Poch presented his research on the role of medical and philosophical discourses on gender and sexology in the literary works of Mori Ōgai (1862-1922). Through an analysis of the novels Vita Sexualis (1909) and Seinen (1910), Professor Poch traced the development of two different models of male artistic creativity in Ōgai’s work: one imagined as a distant sterile observer, built on a suppression of desire, the other expressed as an androgynous being that is able to explore the creative potential of abnormal character (in the medical sense of the time).

In the second half of his lecture, Professor Daniel Poch introduced a provocative reading of the literary works of Mori Shige (1880-1936), interpreting her stories “Haran” (1909), “Adabana” (1910), “San” (1910), “Ohama” (1910), and “Okoisan” (1912) as feminist critiques of her husband’s fantasies about male creativity.

The event was capped by a lively conversation between speaker and audience about the interplay of Japanese and Western models for understanding same-sex desire in Meiji Japan, the relationships of Ōgai and Shige with their contemporary feminist movement, the role of ideas of authenticity and self-representation in Japanese literature of the early 20th century, and many other related topics.

Organizer

Waseda University Research Institute for Letters, Arts and Sciences
Ryusaku Tsunoda Center of Japanese Culture
SGU Global Japanese Studies