Latest / New Books in Japanese Studies
Laura Moretti, "Pleasure in Profit: Popular Prose in Seventeenth-Century Japan" (Columbia UP, 2020)
In the seventeenth century, Japanese popular prose flourished as waves of newly literate readers gained access to the printed word. Commercial publishers released vast numbers of titles in response to readers’ hunger for books that promised them potent knowledge. However, traditional literary histories of this period position the writings of Ihara Saikaku at center stage, largely neglecting the breadth of popular prose.
In Pleasure in Profit: Popular Prose in Seventeenth-Century Japan (Columbia UP, 2020), Laura Moretti investigates the vibrant world of vernacular popular literature. She…
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