Asian & Pacific Islander American Studies

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"Does Beauty Matter? Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930" Dr. Anri Yasuda, of the University of Virginia, will discuss her new book, Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930 (Columbia University Press, 2024), which examines how literary writers attempted to balance the pursuit of beautiful ideals and an engagement with lived realities. The talk will show that the dual commitments to both aesthetics and critical reason were a formative tension in the literary philosophies of the novelist Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916), often deemed the most important Japanese writer of his generation. Yasuda traces Sōseki’s explorations into the conceptual possibilities of modern literature particularly in comparison against the visual arts; while he envisioned a notion of art that transcended differences in medium, he also sought to delineate the inimitable properties of literary language. Yasuda proposes that the insights and questions articulated by the Japanese writers of the early twentieth century bear strong relevance to current global debates about the value and purpose of ‘literature’ and ‘aesthetics,’ as the latest developments in AI technologies call for a re-assessment of what is unique to humanity.

Sponsored by: Japanese Studies Program

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