Lecture: The Forefront of Japanese Pop Literature and Criticism: “Light Novels”, Games, and Otaku Imagination
November 29, 2005
Lecture: The Forefront of Japanese Pop Literature and Criticism: “Light Novels”, Games, and Otaku Imagination
Hiroki AZUMA (Associate Professor, Center for Global Communications, International University of Japan)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. and Amsterdam Ave.)
6:00 PM – 7:30 PM
Recent years have seen an explosion of American interest in Japanese pop culture. Yet this interest may not be keeping pace with cutting-edge developments in Japan. Japanese pop culture drastically changed in the 1990s. With these changes came significant shifts in criticism and analysis. Azuma will draw on the contents of his Animalizing Postmodernity (Dobutsuka suru posutomodan, 2001) to explore the meaning of these shifts. He will also introduce the impact of these changes on the literary scene through the example of the “Light Novel” movement.
