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Novel Japan: Spaces of Nationhood in Early Meiji Narrative, 1870-88. By JOHN PIERRE MERTZ. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies, no. 48. Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 2003. xvii, 293 pp. $60.00 (cloth).
These are good days for those of us interested in early Meiji literature. In Japan the past decade has seen the publication of important new studies as well as new reprint editions of Meiji writings, many of them accompanied by the sort of full scholarly apparatus that was formerly reserved for pre-1868 works. Outside Japan as well a new generation of scholars has begun to take up Meiji literature from a variety of innovative perspectives. It is no longer possible to dismiss these works as childish failures: it should be clear to all that we need to read them with care.
In the midst of this good fortune, the appearance of John Mertz's new book comes as especially welcome news. It covers a broad range of genres and connects them intelligently to crucial theoretical issues: the rise of nationalism, the ambiguities of gender, and the politics of canonization, among others. Moreover, it presents its arguments in lucid, attractive prose and reproduces numerous illustrations taken from the pages of Meiji publications. Novel Japan: Spaces of Nationhood in Early Meiji Narrative, 1870-88 will take its place as one of the standard works in the field.
Mertz makes his purpose clear:...