In the Company of Men: Representations of Male-male Sexuality in Meiji LiteratureIn the Company of Men examines representations of male-male sexuality in literature from the Meiji period (1868-1912), the era when Japan embarked on an unprecedented modernization campaign. Because male-male sexuality occupied a prominent place in the literary culture of the preceding Edo period (1600-1868), the issue was of importance to Meiji writers and intellectuals, especially given the stigma attached to male-male sexuality in Europe and America, the "civilized" societies that Japan strove to emulate as it modernized. The heterosexualization of literature thus emerged as a key component of the production of Japanese literary and cultural modernity. At the same time, male-male sexuality also surfaced as an important cultural symbol for segments of society opposed to the push to modernize. In the Company of Men considers how these conflicting attitudes toward male-male sexuality manifested themselves in Meiji literary history. |
Contents
Nanshoku and EarlyMeiji Modernity | 13 |
Sawamura Tanosuke and EarlyMeiji Reinterpretations of Kabuki | 36 |
Nanshoku and Literary Reform | 65 |
Copyright | |
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associated Bakin Bakin's historical beautiful youth behavior Bimyō character Chikuma Shobō Civilization and Enlightenment Dairoku degeneration Dōya Dōya's early-Meiji Edo period elements erotic female feminine gender heterosexuality Hige otoko homoerotic ideal illustration Japan Japanese literature kabuki Kadokawa Shoten Kanai Kiriyama Kisen Kochō kōha Kokumin no tomo Kotaro Kyokutei Bakin late-Meiji Maeda male love male-female love male-male bonds male-male sexuality masculinity medieval Meiji bungaku zenshū Meiji literary Meiji modernity Meiji period modern Japanese literature moral Moriyama Musashino Nakano nanpa narrative narrator Natsume Sōseki Naturalist nature novel Nowaki Ōgai onnagata Oshimo poisonous-woman political popular readers representation Rohan romantic samurai nanshoku Sangoro Satsuma Sawamura Tanosuke seinen sexual culture sexual desire Shizu no odamaki Shōnen Shōnen sugata shōsetsu Shōyō signifying mechanisms social Sohō Sōseki sōshi story style Takayanagi tale Tanoji Tanosuke's tion Tokyo Tōsei shosei katagi Tsubouchi Shōyō Uchida Roan Vita Sexualis warrior youth writers Yamada Bimyō young