Writing the Love of Boys
Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature
A pioneering look at same-sex desire in Japanese modernist writing
312 Pages, 6 x 9 in
- Paperback
- 9780816669707
- Published: February 28, 2011
Details
Writing the Love of Boys
Origins of Bishonen Culture in Modernist Japanese Literature
ISBN: 9780816669707
Publication date: February 28th, 2011
312 Pages
8 x 5
"Writing the Love of Boys makes an important contribution to the study of sexuality in modern Japan. Jeffrey Angles thoughtfully examines the representation of male-male sexuality in the work of three prewar Japanese writers, offering insightful commentary on the specific features of how each writer depicts male-male desire and uses their texts as a lens through which to explore larger currents in the literary and sexual culture of the time." —Jim Reichert, author of In the Company of Men: Representations of Male-Male Sexuality in Meiji Literature
"Angles vividly resurrects a current of Japanese literary modernism—namely, its estheticization of the ‘love of boys’—that previous narratives have obscured. From the perspective of queer history and culture the trio of authors on whom he focuses—Kaita, Ranpo, Taruho—form a fascinating and lastingly influential lineage." —Gregory Pflugfelder, Columbia University
Jeffrey Angles focuses on key writers, examining how they experimented with new language, genres, and ideas to find fresh ways to represent love and desire between men. He traces the personal and literary relationships between contemporaries such as the poet Murayama Kaita, the mystery writers Edogawa Ranpo and Hamao Shiro, the anthropologist Iwata Jun’ichi, and the avant-garde innovator Inagaki Taruho.
Writing the Love of Boys shows how these authors interjected the subject of male–male desire into discussions of modern art, aesthetics, and perversity. It also explores the impact of their efforts on contemporary Japanese culture, including the development of the tropes of male homoeroticism that recur so often in Japanese girls’ manga about bishonen love.
Introduction
1. Blow the Blood-Stained Bugle: Murayama Kaita and the Language of Personal Sensation
2. Treading the Edges of the Known World: Homoerotic Fantasies in Murayama Kaita’s Prose
3. The Appeal of the Strange: Same-Sex Desire in Edogawa Ranpo’s Mystery Fiction
4. (Re)Discovering Same-Sex Love: Ranpo and the Creation of Queer History
5. Uninscribing the Adolescent Body: Aesthetic Resistance in Taruho’s Writing
Conclusion: Postwar Legacies
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index