Lecture: Modern Japanese Literature: One Hundred Years of Solitude

October 16, 2002

Lecture: Modern Japanese Literature: One Hundred Years of Solitude
Genichiro Takahashi (Novelist)
403 Kent Hall, Columbia University (116th St. & Amsterdam Ave.)
6:30 PM
Lecture to be given in Japanese with English translation
Reception to follow

Genichiro Takahashi is one of Japan’s leading postmodern writers. He has published numerous novels, short stories, and essays over the past two decades. His first novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi (Sayonara, Gangsters, 1982), won the Gunzo Literary Award for First Novels. In addition, his Yuga de kansho-teki na Nippon-yakyuu (Japanese Baseball: Elegant and Sentimental) won the Mishima Yukio Award in 1988, and his Nihon bungaku seisui shi recently received the Itoh Sei Literature Award. His other works include Pengin mura ni hi wa ochite (Sunset in Penguin Village, 1989), Wakusei P-13 no himitsu (The Secret of Planet 13, 1990), and Gosutobasutazu (Ghostbusters, 1997).

In this talk, Mr. Takahashi will be reading from his first published novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi. He will also be commenting on Japanese literature from the turn of the 20th century to the present.

Mr. Takahashi is a Visiting Fellow of the Donald Keene Center, under a program supported by the United States-Japan Foundation.

TAKAHASHI Genichiro (Author and Critic)

Genichiro Takahashi is one of Japan’s leading postmodern writers. He has published numerous novels, short stories, and essays over the past two decades. His first novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi Sayonara, Gangsters, 1982), won the Gunzo Literary Award for First Novels. In addition, his Yuga de kansho-teki na Nippon-yakyuu (Japanese Baseball: Elegant and Sentimental) won the Mishima Yukio Award in 1988, and his Nihon bungaku seisui shi recently received the Itoh Sei Literature Award. His other works include Penguin mura ni hi wa ochite (Sunset in Penguin Village, 1989), Wakusei P-13 no himitsu (The Secret of Planet 13, 1990), and Gosutobasutazu (Ghostbusters, 1997). His essays cover topics from books to horse-racing.

During his month-long Visiting Fellow stay, Mr. Takahashi participated in a class on modern Japanese literature at Columbia and also gave a public lecture in which he read from his first published novel, Sayonara, Gyangutachi, and shared his insights on Japanese literature from the turn of the 20th century to the present. His other lecture sites included Cornell University, Harvard University, Princeton University, New York University, and the University of California-Los Angeles.