Japan's Independent Presses and Regional Publishers: Literature as Social Activism in the 20th Century

FAIN: FT-59766-12

Ann Sherif
Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH 44074-1057)

I will conduct research in the Archives of Hiroshima University about prominent journalists of the Chugoku Shimbun, the Hiroshima regional newspaper serving 700,000 readers in its print edition. The research I complete during the NEH grant will result, in the short term, in a scholarly article on literature and the Chugoku Shimbun. In the long run, it will form the core of a chapter of my book on independent publishers and regional media outlets in Japan that became instrumental in catalyzing cultural and political change such as the environmental, peace, feminist, proletarian, and avant garde movements. Such publishers altered the course of Japanese literary and intellectual history by revealing innovative narrative modes, aesthetic approaches, and currents of thought. The project will contribute to humanities scholarship and teaching in literature, modern history, and book history.