Decadent Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan

Decadence is a concept that designates a given historical moment as a phase of decay and valorizes the past as an irretrievable golden age. This study offers an innovative examination of a century of Japanese fiction through the analytical prism of decadence.

"Skillfully blending literary, philosophical, historical, and economic issues, Ikuho Amano's exploration of Japanese decadence is groundbreaking and compelling. This brilliant analysis of non-productive, subversive labor as resistance to mainstream social and aesthetic values highlights new fascinating connections between European and Japanese modernity...a crucial reading for anyone interested in East-West literary and cultural relations." - Nicoletta Pireddu, Associate Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature, Georgetown University, USA "This book is an exceptionally fine study of how decadence as a theme can be understood as a counter trope to the major aesthetic currents (including collectivity and conformity) that dominate twentieth century Japanese fiction. Ikuho Amano's brilliant, close readings - buttressed by a wealth of references to Japanese literary-critical discourse and contemporary Western literature and theory - and rediscovery of some important but neglected works of fiction portrays modern Japanese fiction in an entirely new light." - Leith Morton, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, and author of The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature 'Ikuho Amano's study of Decadence is a contemporary genealogy of 'useless men' in a modern efficiency-driven economy. It will be of interest to all scholars of modern Japanese culture, transculturation, and intercultural studies.' - Regenia Gagnier, Professor of English, University of Exeter, UK and author of Individualism, Decadence and Globalization

Ikuho Amano is an Assistant Professor of Japanese and the Coordinator of the Japanese Program in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, USA.