Damian Flanagan talks about Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature

Date: June 16 (Sat.) 3:30 - 5:30 pm

Location: Nishinomiya-shi Daigaku Kōryū Centre, 6F Lecture Room 1, ACTA East Tower, adjacent to Hankyu Nishinomiya Kitaguchi Stn

Fee: 500 yen for SWET members, 1,000 yen for non-members (No charge for Kobe College students and staff)

Reservations:

SWET Kansai.

Damian Flanagan, literary authority and prize-winning translator, will give a talk about the books of Natsume Soseki, which he considers some of the greatest works in world literature.

Damian has himself produced four books on Soseki, starting with Nihonjin ga Shiranai Natsume Soseki (The Natsume Soseki the Japanese Don’t Know) in 2003, followed by his award-winning collection of translations from Soseki’s early years spent in Britain entitled The Tower of London: Tales of Victorian London in 2005. He has also written definitive critical introductions to such classics as Kokoro and The Gate.

This talk coincides with the publication of a further groundbreaking book in Japanese called Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature. Part memoir, part essay, it is an amusing and passionately written account of Damian’s fascination with the works of Japan’s greatest modern author.

Damian wrestles with ingrained perceptions of Soseki in Japan while simultaneously trying to reintroduce his works to the West where appreciation of the author is so slight. His talk will focus on:

• Why Kokoro is one of the most fiercely debated novels in world literature, generating over 500 academic papers (and counting!)
• The depth and complexity in Soseki’s frequently overlooked classic The Gate
• Why Botchan is one of the great world comedies

This promises to be an unmissable event for anyone with an interest in some of the defining works of modern Japan.

Sponsored by the Society of Writers, Editors and Translators (SWET) and co-sponsored by Kobe College Research Institute