Japanese Literature, Criticism and Theory

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Abstract From the late nineteenth century to the present, Japan has challenged the assumptions underlying the dualism of a traditional East and a modern West. Japan's shifting position as both the subject and object of the colonial gaze is evident in modern Japanese literature; scholars have applied various postcolonial concepts to different moments throughout modern Japanese history: “self‐colonization” during the Meiji period, orientalizing of Asia throughout the colonial period, postwar colonial nostalgia, postcolonial writing by “minority” writers, and contemporary investigations of Japanese identity (ethnic, linguistic, national, and cultural).