Banana Yoshimoto

Ann Sherif

A collection of six short stories incorporates themes of time, healing, and fate, following the adventures of young men and women who struggle to understand confusing emotions while embarking on journeys of self-discovery. Reprint.

Lizard

emphases of many of Koda's literary contemporaries in postwar Japan.

A DEALER IN MEMORIES: THE FICTION AND ESSAYS OF KODA AYA (JAPAN, WOMEN WRITERS).

Ann Sherif discusses the life and work of Kòda in light of changes in critical horizons, readerly communities, and especially constructions of gender and the family in the latter half of the twentieth century. Excellent translations of some of Kòda's most provocative short works are included.

The Fiction and Essays of Koda Aya

Mirror

Critics and cultural historians take Japan's postwar insularity for granted, rarely acknowledging the role of Cold War concerns in the shaping of Japanese society and culture. Nuclear anxiety, polarized ideologies, gendered tropes of nationhood, and new myths of progress, among other developments, profoundly transformed Japanese literature, criticism, and art during this era and fueled the country's desire to recast itself as a democratic nation and culture. By rereading the pivotal events, iconic figures, and crucial texts of Japan's literary and artistic life through the lens of the Cold War, Ann Sherif places this supposedly insular nation at the center of a global battle. Each of her chapters focuses on a major moment, spectacle, or critical debate highlighting Japan's entanglement with cultural Cold War politics. Film director Kurosawa Akira, atomic bomb writer Hara Tamiki, singer and movie star Ishihara Yujiro, and even Godzilla and the Japanese translation of Lady Chatterley's Lover all reveal the trends and controversies that helped Japan carve out a postwar literary canon, a definition of obscenity, an idea of the artist's function in society, and modern modes of expression and knowledge. Sherif's comparative approach not only recontextualizes seemingly anomalous texts and ideas, but binds culture firmly to the domestic and international events that defined the decades following World War II. By integrating the art and criticism of Japan into larger social fabrics, Japan's Cold War offers a truly unique perspective on the critical and creative acts of a country remaking itself in the aftermath of war.

Media, Literature, and the Law

Japan’s Cold War

Koda Aya (1904-1990) did not publish until she was 43 years old. Her short stories, novels and essays, insightfully exploring women's lives, the family and traditional culture, were welcomed by readers, and her elegant, mature style was lauded by critics.

Ann Sherif

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