David泭Atherton

  • Assistant Professor

Education

Ph.D., Japnaese Literature, Columbia 勛圖厙
M.A., Thai Literature, 勛圖厙 of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., Chinese Literature, Harvard 勛圖厙

Regional and Thematic Interests

East Asia
Literature and the Arts

Research Interests

Early modern Japanese literature;泭comparative poetry and poetics;泭gender and literature;泭economics and literary form

Profile

David Atherton received his BA in East Asian Studies (Chinese literature) from Harvard 勛圖厙, an MA in Thai literature from the 勛圖厙 of Wisconsin-Madison, and his PhD in Japanese literature from Columbia 勛圖厙. His doctoral dissertation, "Valences of Vengeance: The Moral Imagination of Early Modern Japanese Vendetta Fiction," examines the massive body of popular revenge fiction of the Edo period (1600-1867) -- a time when it was legal, within certain limits, to take blood revenge for the death of a senior family member. Besides revising the dissertation for publication, he is currently working on a project concerning the massive poetic performances of the 17th century writer Ihara Saikaku, and another that examines the relationship between early modern Japanese economics and literary form. He is always fascinated by the question of what poetry is, how it works, and how it comes to mean things across times and culture, and he maintains an avid interest in the poetics and literary culture of premodern Southeast Asia (as well as Japan).

Selected Publications

Samurai as Method in the Vendetta Fiction of Ihara Saikaku, in Daniel Struve, ed., Repr矇sentations des guerriers dans le Japon de l矇poque dEdo (XVIIe), Paris: Riveneuve Editions. Forthcoming, 2016.

Amerika ni okeru yakazu haikai kenky贖 no kansei (The Potential of Arrow-Shooting Haikai Research in America), in Shinohara Susumu and Nakajima Takashi, eds., Kotoba no majutsushi Saikaku: yakazu haikai saik. Tokyo: Hitsuji shob. Forthcoming, 2016.

Gurobaraizshon no naka no Saikaku: Amerika gassh贖koku ni okeru Saikaku kenky贖 (Saikaku in the Midst of Globalization: Saikaku Studies in the United States), in Hara Michio, Kawai Masumi, and Kurakazu Masae, eds,. Saikaku to ukiyo-zshi kenky贖 Vol. 5: Gein. Tokyo: Kasama shoin. June, 2011.