David听Atherton
- Assistant Professor
Education
Ph.D., Japnaese Literature, Columbia University
M.A., Thai Literature, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A., Chinese Literature, Harvard University
Regional and Thematic Interests
East Asia
Literature and the Arts
Research Interests
Early modern Japanese literature;听comparative poetry and poetics;听gender and literature;听economics and literary form
Profile
David Atherton received his BA in East Asian Studies (Chinese literature) from Harvard University, an MA in Thai literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and his PhD in Japanese literature from Columbia University. His doctoral dissertation, "Valences of Vengeance: The Moral Imagination of Early Modern Japanese Vendetta Fiction," examines the massive body of popular revenge fiction of the Edo period (1600-1867) -- a time when it was legal, within certain limits, to take blood revenge for the death of a senior family member. Besides revising the dissertation for publication, he is currently working on a project concerning the massive poetic performances of the 17th century writer Ihara Saikaku, and another that examines the relationship between early modern Japanese economics and literary form. He is always fascinated by the question of what poetry is, how it works, and how it comes to mean things across times and culture, and he maintains an avid interest in the poetics and literary culture of premodern Southeast Asia (as well as Japan).
Selected Publications
鈥淪amurai as Method in the Vendetta Fiction of Ihara Saikaku,鈥 in Daniel Struve, ed., Repr茅sentations des guerriers dans le Japon de l鈥櫭﹑oque d鈥橢do (XVIIe), Paris: Riveneuve Editions. Forthcoming, 2016.
鈥淎merika ni okeru yakazu haikai kenky奴 no kan艒sei鈥 (The Potential of 鈥淎rrow-Shooting Haikai鈥 Research in America), in Shinohara Susumu and Nakajima Takashi, eds., Kotoba no majutsushi Saikaku: yakazu haikai saik艒. Tokyo: Hitsuji shob艒. Forthcoming, 2016.
鈥淕urobaraiz膿shon no naka no Saikaku: Amerika gassh奴koku ni okeru Saikaku kenky奴鈥 (Saikaku in the Midst of Globalization: Saikaku Studies in the United States), in Hara Michio, Kawai Masumi, and Kurakazu Masae, eds,. Saikaku to ukiyo-z艒shi kenky奴 Vol. 5: Gein艒. Tokyo: Kasama shoin. June, 2011.