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An in-depth and comprehensive account of the complex history of Japanese modernism from the mid-19th century ´opening to the West´ until the 21st century globalized world of ´postmodernism.´ Its concept of modernism encompasses not just the aesthetic avant-garde but a wide spectrum of social, political and cultural phenomena.

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Acknowledgements Introduction: Modernity and Modernism in a Japanese Context PART I: CONSTRUCTING ´MODERNITY´ AND ´TRADITION´: MODERNISM AND ANTI-MODERNISM IN MEIJI JAPAN, 1868-1912 Constructing Meiji Modernity The Anti-Modernist Backlash: Constructing Meiji Tradition The Novel as Modernist Medium: Modernity and Anti-Modernity in Meiji Fiction PART II: HIGH MODERNISM AND THE FASCIST BACKLASH, 1912-1945 The Japanese Modernist Generation, 1912-1931 The Historical Context of Japanese Modernism The Legacy of Japonisme in Japan Itself Kawabata as Modernist and Anti-modernist PART III: THE RIVAL MODERNISMS OF POSTWAR JAPAN, 1945-1970 Modernist Missionaries: The Americans in Japan, 1945-1952 Japanese Responses to American Missionary Modernism The Occupation in Fiction French as an Alternative to American Modernism ?e Kenzabur?´s ´Ambiguous´ Utopianism Responses from the Right: The Empire Strikes Back The Reactionary Modernism of Mishima Yukio PART IV: EMPTY AND MARVELLOUS: JAPAN IN THE ´POSTMODERN AGE´, 1970-2010 Defining the ´Postmodern Condition´´Postmodernity´ in Japan National Culture and Identity in a ´Postmodern´ Age A Goethean Conclusion Afterword: Japanese Modernism Today

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´With this, Starrs has picked up where he left off from his previous trilogy on Japanese literature, providing readers with another informative and challenging study. In so doing, he provides us with fresh insights into a topic that has been restored to a leading place in a variety of debates in recent years: Japan´s approach to the modernist agenda when reassessed against the backdrop of postmodernist discourse. Once more, we are indebted to Starrs for his clear and concise analysis and attention to detail.´ - Mark Williams, Chair, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Leeds, UK

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ROY STARRS teaches Japanese and Asian Studies at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He has published widely on Japanese literature, art and culture, including books on Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata and Naoya Shiga. He has also edited three books on Japanese and Asian nationalism and globalization. His edited book, Politics and Religion in Modern Japan: Red Sun, White Lotus, is forthcoming from Palgrave in 2011.

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