Professor Campbell then proposed a question to Ogawa. \u201cWhen I read your stories and consider what ties them together under the surface, doesn\u2019t it seem that there is a concern for how people find an internal balance between having some commonplace thing snatched away from them and how they react to that very act snatching?\u201d Professor Campbell illustrated his point by discussing the essence of Ogawa\u2019s The Hostage\u2019s Public Reading<\/em> (Hitojichi no r\u014ddokukai<\/em>, 2011) and reading a passage for the audience.<\/p>\n Ogawa responded, \u201cI\u2019m interested in writing about the strength of people that don\u2019t resist, the strength that comes from accepting reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Professor Campbell drew from his own research on early modern Japanese literature, responding, \u201cI think we could say that there are some ubiquitous modes of feeling that are shared amongst people living in Japan. First, there is the feeling that if one is prepared, one might be able to stave off misfortune. Second, there is the feeling that misfortune and joy are connected. This shared world comes from experiences with Buddhism and Confucianism. People don\u2019t shout out about \u2018happiness.\u2019 \u2018Sorrow\u2019 and \u2018joy\u2019 are tied together in the word \u2018kuraku,\u2019 where both sorrow and joy arrive in a cycle. Fundamentally speaking, letting misfortune pass you by brings joyfulness.\u201d<\/p>\n Session One closed with Ogawa reading selections from her 1994 novel Hisoyaka na kessh\u014d, with Professor Campbell reading from Stephen Snyder\u2019s 2019 English translation, The Memory Police.<\/p>\n Session Two, \u201cBorder Crossings\u201d\u2014Literary Creation and Translation, opened with a presentation by Professor Hitomi Yoshio on the theme \u201cThe Translation and Reception of Japanese Literature Abroad.\u201d Professor Yoshio focused on the women authors and translators that are currently active in the English-speaking world. What began as the \u201cBig Three\u201d of Japanese authors\u2014Jun\u2019ichir\u014d Tanizaki, Yasunari Kawabata, and Yukio Mishima\u2014then became \u201cThe Next Big Three\u201d: K\u014db\u014d Abe, Sh\u016bsaku Endo, and Kenzabur\u014d \u014ce. Generally speaking, it was works written by men that were translated for the English-language world. Starting from the 1990s, however, women writers like Mieko Kawakami, Y\u014dko Tawada, and Y\u014dko Ogawa made their appearance in the English-language literary marketplace. Professor Yoshio pointed out that this phenomenon was accompanied by the simultaneous emergence of women translators.<\/p>\n Professor Richi Sakakibara spoke next, introducing the critical conversation she had with her students when they read Li Kotomi\u2019s recent novel The Island Where Red Spider Lilies Bloom<\/em> (Higanbana ga saku shima<\/em>, 2021) together in class. For example, they compared the novel\u2019s utopian adventure with its dystopian setting\u2014and Professor Sakakibara passed on the students\u2019 request to Li for a sequel.<\/p>\n Finally, Li Kotomi explained the process that goes into her writing, as well as her self-translations of her works. \u201cIt is precisely because they are my own works that I understand the details and devices in them\u2014and have the authority to \u2018fix\u2019 them,\u201d she said. She added that her novel Dance Solo<\/em> (Hitorimai<\/em>, 2018) had some variations between the Japanese- and Chinese-language versions. Li demonstrated this by reading selections from the Japanese novel and her self-translation.<\/p>\n After the presentations concluded, the panelists engaged in a discussion based around Li\u2019s works, touching on texts written in multiple languages, the question of writing and gender, and the idea of border-crossing literature.<\/p>\n Building from the Symposium\u2019s title, \u201cExplore Your Story, Speak Your Heart,\u201d the Waseda International House of Literature was pleased to welcome these two contemporary writers as special guests, and connecting their writing to the research and educational activities of the three Waseda professors who joined them. With the aid of the Waseda Broadcasting Association, the online event was viewed live by around 190 people. These viewers supplied numerous questions for the live Q&A sessions, showing a great interest in contemporary Japanese literature and literature that crosses national borders. An edited version of the symposium video will be archived and available to many additional viewers in the future.<\/p>\n Date\/Time: Sunday, November 20, 2021, 14:00 \u2013 17:15 JST 14:00 – 14:05: Opening Remarks, Hirokazu Toeda (Director, Waseda International House of Literature; Professor, Waseda Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)<\/p>\n 14:05 \u2013 14:15: Online Tour of the Waseda International House of Literature<\/p>\n 14:15 \u2013 15:25: Session One: Dialogue<\/p>\n \u201cHeart in the Story\u201d\u2014A Dialogue of Tales Coming into the World 15:40 \u2013 17:10: Session Two: Roundtable<\/p>\n \u201cBorder Crossings\u201d\u2014Literary Creation and Translation 17:10 \u2013 17:15: Closing Remarks, Robert Campbell<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Because the Symposium was held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an online tour of the Waseda International […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[97,111],"class_list":["post-13664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en","tag-en-gj","tag-report-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13664"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14010,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13664\/revisions\/14010"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/02\/98e82861abae6b0453f120d17cfea2f5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/assets\/uploads\/2022\/02\/a48691a951c7fdbcd3a4d3c4f64d6cd9.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEvent Details:<\/h5>\n
\nLocation: The Waseda International House of Literature (The Haruki Murakami Museum), Audio Room (Live Simulcast on YouTube Live)
\nOrganizer: The Waseda International House of Literature
\nCo-organizer: Top Global University Japan Project, Waseda University Global Japanese Studies
\nCooperation: Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities<\/p>\nEvent Schedule:<\/h5>\n
\nY\u014dko Ogawa (Author, Waseda alum)
\nRobert Campbell (Advisor, Waseda International House of Literature; Specially University Professor, Waseda University)<\/p>\n
\nLi Kotomi (Author, Waseda alum)
\nHitomi Yoshio (Associate Professor, Waseda Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences)
\nRichi Sakakibara (Associate Director, Waseda International House of Literature; Professor, Waseda School of International Liberal Studies)<\/p>\n