News

Waseda University released episode six, “Authors, Abnormality, and Identity in Modern Japan”, of season two of its English language podcast series “Rigorous Research, Real Impact” on December 2, 2025. All podcast episodes are available for free on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, and YouTube.

Episode 6: “Authors, Abnormality, and Identity in Modern Japan”

In this episode of “Rigorous Research, Real Impact,” Graduate School of Political Science PhD student Peter sits down with Associate Professor Pau Pitarch from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences to explore how early 20th-century authors and artists in Japan reimagined their identities. Prof. Pitarch unpacks why writers in the 1920s proudly identified with mental “abnormality” as a mark of creative genius, and how global currents in psychology, art, and modernity shaped this unique cultural moment. The conversation also delves into Professor Pitarch’s personal journey into Japanese literature, the value of studying culture within Japan using a global lens, and what makes Waseda’s English-based degree programs in the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences—JCulP and Global-J—such vibrant spaces for international learning and discovery.

This episode is based on the following research: 
Pitarch-Fernandez, P. (2021, June 23). Abnormal genealogies: Diagnosing the writer in 1920s Japan. Modernism/Modernity Forum. https://doi.org/10.26597/mod.0205

About Season 2
Season two features eight knowledgeable Waseda researchers casually conversing with Waseda PhD students about their recent, rigorously conducted research in the humanities/social sciences, their thoughts on working in Japan at Waseda, and the merits of the English-based degree programs they are a part of. Short 15-minutes episodes will cover a range of themes that include translanguaging in the Japanese sociolinguistic context, legendary game designer Hideo Kojima, and hybrid peacebuilding. It’s the perfect choice for international listeners considering attending university in Japan, current students contemplating further study in graduate school, and researchers looking to make the move to Japan and work for a university that stresses the importance of interdisciplinary approaches.

About the Guest
Associate Professor Pau Pitarch’s specialization is modern Japanese literature and media. He is interested in exploring how issues of aesthetics, psychology, ideology, and economics interacted in the formation of the modern literary field. He has published on authors like Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, Chŏng Yŏn-gyu, Okamoto Kanoko, Ōtsuka Kusuoko, Satō Haruo, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, among others. His wider interests include narratology, translation, and the development of global genres such as mystery, fantasy, horror, and science fiction. Pitarch received his B.A. in Comparative Literature from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, M.A. in Japanese Literature from the University of Tokyo, and Ph.D. in Japanese Literature from Columbia University. He previously taught at CUNY Queens College (2015-2017).

Transcript:

Introduction

MC Peter Chai (0:06):
Hello and welcome to Waseda University’s English podcast series titled “Rigorous Research, Real Impact.” In this series, we dive into interesting conversations and stories from Waseda’s vibrant academic and cultural community. I’m your host, Peter Chai, a PhD student in the Graduate School of Political Science here at Waseda.

In this episode, we will talk about the fascinating intersection of modern Japanese literature, popular culture, and psychology. We will be discussing how storytelling reflects and shapes the social and historical context of its time.

MC Peter (0:40):
Professor Pau Pitarch is here from the Faculty of Letters, Arts and Sciences, where he teaches in the undergrad Global Studies in Japanese Cultures Program, also known as JCulP, and the Graduate School of Letters, Arts and Sciences’ Global Japanese Studies program, which is commonly referred to simply as Global-J. His research delves into modern Japanese literature and culture, exploring compelling topics like storytelling across various media and the unique concept of “abnormal psychology” in early 20th-century Japanese literature.

The Allure of “Abnormal Psychology” in 1920s Japan

MC Peter (1:17):
Welcome to the show, Professor Pitarch.

Professor Pau Pitarch (1:21):
Thanks so much for having me. It’s a pleasure.

MC Peter (1:24):
Professor, should we begin by talking about your article “Abnormal Genealogies,” which explores the bygone phenomenon? In 1920s Japan, many writers and artists seemed to almost proudly embrace the label of “abnormal psychology,” or “hentai shinri” in Japanese. This is quite a contrast to how we might view such labels today. Could you walk us through the social and cultural backdrop of that era? What made abnormality an attractive, or perhaps even a necessary, identity for artists back then?

Professor Pitarch (1:55):
Yeah, it sounds odd, right? So, in this article, I’m looking at a survey of writers that was carried out in 1923. And the survey asked a very simple question: what is your mental abnormality? And I think most of us, if we got that question from a journal, would feel maybe even offended or at least weirded out. Why are you asking me about this? But it’s very interesting that in that survey, all the writers respond with great… very naturally. They know why they’re being asked what’s your mental abnormality, right? And they consider that part of their persona as artists.

Professor Pitarch (2:31):
To understand why that was so in 1920s Japan, we have to think about the way Japanese modernity was received in the 19th century, right? If you think of modernity as a process that takes several centuries in the West, that might seem odd, but in Japan, those centuries are received all together in the late 19th century after the modernization of the country. Basically, in Japan, you received discourses of progress, science, rationality, and development, together with all the worries about the effects of progress and development on the human psyche.

Professor Pitarch (3:11):
Let’s take the example of information. Japan goes from a pre-modern society with a telegraph, a postal system, news from all over the world, right? There is this worry that in modern times, we have too many stimuli. There’s too much that’s affecting our brains, and that is obviously going to overtax them. And that creates this image of the intellectual modern worker as somebody whose nerves, whose sensibility, whose brain is overworked. And that overwork is shown in this psychopathology of the time, right? And it’s, if you think about it, it’s very easy to self-diagnose oneself as, “Oh, I’m too nervous. I can’t sleep well. I’m tired. It must be that I’ve been reading too much. I’ve been thinking too much,” right? It’s a pathology, but it’s also a way of showing that you are kind of embedded in this modern times where stimuli are flowing, everything happens very fast, right? You’re living in that modernity, and that–your psychopathology–is proof that you are smack in the middle of that exciting new world.

The Intersection of Art, Genius, and Psychopathology

MC Peter (4:23):
It was a great introduction of you article and research field, Professor.

Your article links this to the medicalization of modern life. I’m curious, how did new scientific or medical ideas, like the concept of neurasthenia, provide artists with a new vocabulary to express their unique experiences and struggles in Japan, which was modernizing at such a rapid pace?

Professor Pitarch (4:42):
Yes, so specifically, what I talked about applies to basically all intellectuals and brain workers, right? Like the people who are modernizing the country. But specifically with artists, what is very interesting is that Japan receives basically the canon of modern Western literature all together. They are reading Goethe together with Maupassant, together with Baudelaire, together with Strindberg. And they’re receiving these authors as this kind of new modern sensibility. And if you look at the lives of these authors, many of them experienced actual mental illness or mental problems, right? Baudelaire in a mental asylum, so did Maupassant. Poe was an alcoholic, Dostoevsky had epilepsy, Strindberg had a mental breakdown in Paris. There are so many examples, right? So, the way these authors are received in Japan, their literature, their art, and their psychology are received together. So, in a sense, it becomes kind of part of the story of the modern artist.

Professor Pitarch (5:52):
It’s just like we were saying with intellectual workers. For instance, Natsume Soseki talks about this in one of his lectures about the modernization of Japan, right? He says, if you are too happy, you’re probably not a serious scholar. Like, no serious person could engage with the world and be like a healthy, happy-go-lucky person. You’re probably depressed, you’re probably overworked, you probably can’t sleep very well, right? So that becomes kind of part of the package.

Professor Pitarch (6:15):
And specifically with artists, there is this scientific concept at the time—we don’t take the science seriously now—but something that they called genius theory, right? Which is the idea that the human body is a system of balances. So, if you have somebody who’s, let’s say, Beethoven, his musical ability is off the charts, then something in his body must be under average to offset that, right? So, he develops deafness, right? Or you have Nietzsche, who is this great intellectual, but then he also ends up in an insane asylum, right? You have to pay for your genius. That’s the theory. But originally, that theory presupposed that you had the talent first, and then your body had to pay for that talent, right?

But in Japan, because you receive all these stories together—like Baudelaire is already dead, Maupassant already ended up in an insane asylum—all these people, you can see their whole lives, then in a way, in Japan, the causality kind of shifts. It’s not that first you’re a great artist and then when you’re older, unfortunately, your psyche is overworked. You need everything together. So, you see Japanese authors at the time reading these psychology manuals and kind of diagnosing themselves with all these illnesses, thinking, “If I want to be a great writer like Baudelaire or like Maupassant or like Poe, I should also show some of these symptoms. I can’t appear too happy. I can’t appear too healthy,” right? This is part of what being an artist is: somebody who’s tortured, somebody who’s always thinking of death, somebody who’s always thinking of the dark corners of the human psyche, right? All of that is kind of part of the package of this modern artist that these writers are trying to perform.

From a German Classroom to Japanese Literature

MC Peter (8:11):
Thank you, professor, for a really detailed explanation and ample examples from both Japanese and Western writers and philosophers.
So now, professor, I’d love to hear a bit about your own journey. So, what first sparked your interest in modern Japanese literature and culture? Were there any particular authors, books, or personal experiences that set you on this fascinating path of researching the intersection of psychology and art in Japan?

Professor Pitarch (8:28):
The truth is, I had never been particularly interested in Japan when I was young or when I was a college student. But then I did a study abroad in Germany, and just by chance, in one of my classes, the professor put this Japanese novel on the syllabus, even though nobody could read Japanese. He said, “Let’s read it, see what we can make out of this.” It was a class on aestheticism, on 19th-century aestheticism, and he put in the novel Kinkaku-ji, The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Mishima Yukio. And I just remember feeling like I was looking into like a tiny window into a world that was completely unknown to me, right? It’s a novel set in the 1950s. I had no sense of what the occupation was, but you could see how that played out in Japan. I had had no contact with Buddhism, for instance, but that plays a big part in the novel. And just like the style was very… I read it in a French translation, but I could tell that, you know, the way the story was developed, the way the characters interacted with each other, it was just very different from everything else that I had read. And I thought, you know, it might be worth trying to read this in the original and learn more about this country and this culture. And that started my path towards Japanese literature.

The Unique Perspective of a Non-Japanese Researcher

MC Peter (9:42):
Professor, for our listeners tuning in from around the world, could you share your thoughts on the significance of researching Japanese literature and culture on the ground here in Japan? How does that physical presence enrich the academic experience in ways that studying from overseas might not?

Professor Pitarch (9:59):
Well, specifically for literature, I mean, it’s just the access to sources. The National Diet Library has done an amazing job scanning and digitizing a lot of texts, but because of copyright reasons, not all of them are available to readers outside of Japan, and some of them you have to go to the Diet Library. But in general, you know, there are so many archives, so many museums, so many private collections that are very carefully guarded. If you’re here, then you just have access to all of that. And of course, you have access to all the Japanese scholars who are doing amazing work here. Maybe you will not find as often overseas. Japanese academia is so big and so complex that most scholars don’t need to go to conferences abroad. It’s not as common as scholars from other places that you will find them abroad.

MC Peter (11:00):
Thank you, professor.
What is unique about researching Japanese literature as an international researcher? Are there any interesting international and comparative perspectives you can provide?

Professor Pitarch (11:05):
Yeah, that’s a question that I always get, right? When I tell people I teach in a Japanese university, “What do you teach?” “I teach Japanese literature.” They look at me like I’m selling ice in the North Pole. Like, “Don’t they already have people researching Japanese literature? Why did they need to hire you?” right? But I think researching Japanese literature, in my case, or any Japanese cultural phenomenon or materials within Japanese academia or thinking of global academia is quite different. The questions you ask are different, and the kind of conversations you’re trying to participate in are different, right?

Professor Pitarch (11:38):
In Japan, again, because Japanese academia is so big and so developed, I could spend my whole academic career just writing about Tanizaki Jun’ichiro and just reading Tanizaki Jun’ichiro and just talking to other scholars whose whole academic life is also just Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, a particular novelist that just came to my mind. But if I try to talk about Tanizaki Jun’ichiro to audiences outside of Japan, first I have to set that up. I have to tell them not only who he was, but why is he relevant? You know, why should you care about this author whose novels maybe you will never read? Right? So that it forces you to take that step back and kind of think, okay, how do these phenomena, these historical events, participate in global moments? How can I make this relevant for people who maybe have thought a lot about, let’s say, industrialization in Scotland, France, and the United States? Why should they care about industrialization in Japan? Well, let me tell you why. And then you have to kind of embed your answer within this global conversation about what modernization was or what the ideas of the modern nation were, whatever you’re talking about. You always need to take that step back and kind of ask yourself, “Why is this relevant? What is it connected to? How does this change our ideas about whatever it is you’re talking about?” Because that’s the way that you sell your materials to other scholars, right? “Why should you care about Tanizaki Jun’ichiro?” “Well, let me tell you, if you’re thinking about, let’s say, decadence in literature, your image of that will change after you’ve read his novels because of this and because of that.”
You always need to ask yourself that “why is this important” question that if you were working within, let’s say, a national literature framework, it’s often just assumed. Like, “Why is Shakespeare important?” “Because it’s Shakespeare.” “Why is Chikamatsu Monzaemon important?” “Because it’s Chikamatsu,” right? But when you talk to somebody from outside, you have to convince them that Chikamatsu is important. That’s the work that I think is necessary when you talk to audiences abroad and you think of this global conversation, and that changes… that changes just the way that you approach your work.

Studying Japanese Culture at Waseda

MC Peter (13:54):
Thank you, Professor. I am sure they are very helpful tips for other researchers in the field as well.
Let’s shift our focus to teaching for a moment. You are deeply involved in the Faculty of Letters, Arts, and Sciences’ English-based programs, including the undergrad Global Studies in Japanese Cultures Program, or JCulP, and the graduate program Global-J, which stands for Global Japanese Studies. For any potential future Waseda students listening in, what would you say makes studying at Waseda such a unique and rewarding experience?

Professor Pitarch (14:18):
I think first of all is just the people that we have here, the faculty, but also the students. I’m always amazed at the level of students that we get and how interesting our conversations are, how much I learn from them. But also, what we always try to do is to kind of put the student experience at the center and try to foster something I think is very important in any form of learning, which is intrinsic motivation. Like, you need to be invested in your learning as a learner. You need to have that intrinsic motivation.

Professor Pitarch (14:50):
Some things I do, for instance, in my seminars with undergraduate classes, I always leave some slots in my syllabus empty, and I ask students to propose what they want to read, what they want to discuss, right? And then everybody proposes something, we vote on it. And most of the texts I don’t know because people propose animated films, they propose, I don’t know, contemporary novels that I’ve never read. But I think that’s good, right? Like, I also learn from it, and the students can also see me kind of tackle something new, not just coming to them and just telling them my spiel about Natsume Soseki, right? So, I think those are great moments in our classes where students bring their interests and they kind of drive the learning experience.

A Final Message to Prospective Students and Researchers

MC Peter (15:40):
Thank you, professor, for sharing your unique class format. It sounds like a really mutual learning process for both students and you, as well.
We had a very informative discussion. Before we wrap up the episode, do you have a final message for students around the world who might be thinking about studying at Waseda, or even researchers who might be considering taking up a position in Japan?

Professor Pitarch (15:54):
I’ll say for researchers who are thinking about Japan, something that happens to me when I talk to people outside is they ask me questions where I can tell they’re thinking of, I don’t know, Japan in the 1980s or something like that. Japan has changed a lot in the last 20 years. I’ve been coming to Japan for basically the 21st century, and I’ve seen a big change in many levels. So, I would encourage them to look at our universities and programs with an open mind. There are plenty of people from all over. There is, I can’t speak for other universities, but I know in Waseda, there is a genuine interest in participating in this global conversation that I was talking about earlier and giving their researchers the resources to participate proactively, bring out new insights, original contributions. And I would just tell them to come with an open mind and forget about what they might have heard in the 1980s and give it a chance.

MC Peter (16:54):
Thank you for joining me on the podcast, Professor Pitarch.

Professor Pitarch (16:57):
Oh, thanks so much. It was a pleasure.

Conclusion

 
MC Peter (17:04):
And thanks to all our listeners for tuning in. For more conversations from the corridors of Waseda University, don’t forget to subscribe and tune in to the next episode on Rigorous Research, Real Impact. Until then, take care and stay curious.