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

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

Date: June 25, 2026 (Thursday), 3pm-5pm
Format: In-person only
Location: Conference Room 10, Building 33, 16th Floor, Waseda University Toyama Campus
Language: English and Japanese

This presentation will analyze Mori Ōgai’s novels Vita Sexualis (1919) and Seinen (1910-1911) to understand the role played by contemporary ideas of sexuality and “perversion” in his exploration of art and literature. Late 19th-century Aesthetics and Sexology interacted in Ōgai’s works to depict a “sexual desire” based on ambiguous gender as an indispensable condition for aesthetic pleasure and artistic creativity. At the same time, these novels aim to distance themselves from “perversion” by participating in discourses of scientific reason and nationalistic ideology. Ōgai’s literature is ambivalent, mediating queer sexual desire and pleasure while simultaneously attempting to deny and transcend them, reflecting the complexity of the author himself: not only a writer, but also a physician, and a high-ranking official of the Japanese Empire.

Program

15:00-15:10 Welcome
15:10-16:00 Lecture (in English)
16:00-17:00 Q&A (in English and Japanese)

Organizer

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