Talking About Asia: Charles Exley and "Sato Haruo and Modern Japanese Literature" at Pitt, April 13.

The University of Pittsburgh's Asian Studies Center will present the next "Talking About Asia" installment on Wednesday, April 13, which will feature Dr. Charles Exley on the topic of "Sato Haruo and Modern Japanese Literature". Dr. Exley, of the Department of East Asian Languages & Literatures, published a book this year on the topic.

The study examines the ways in which selected novels and short stories interact with cultural discourses of the time, including the fantastic, the discourse on melancholy and mental illness, detective fiction and early film, colonial encounter and critique of civilization, and hysteria and psychoanalysis.
Exley’s alignment of Satō’s fictional work with its cultural and historical context illustrates the complex ways in which Satō’s aesthetic projections derived from and comment on Japan’s experience with modernization during the twentieth century.

The talk will be held from 12:00 pm in 4130 Posvar Hall (map) and is free and open to the public.