Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Publishing and the Creation of an Alternative Economy of Value 1
1. Modernity as Rupture: The Concentration of Print Capital 17
2. The Stability of the Center: Tokyo Publishing and the Great Kanto Earthquake 51
3. The Static Canon: Kaizosha's Complete Works of Contemporary Japanese Literature 91
4. Defining and Defending Literary Value: Debates, 1919–1935 139
5. The Dynamic Canon: The Akutagawa and Naoki Prizes for Literature 181
Epilogue 223
Appendix 237
Notes 243
Works Cited 297
Index 311

Promotional Information

An examination of the role of Japan's publishing industry in determining what counted as modern Japanese literature

About the Author

Edward Mack is Associate Professor of Japanese at the University of Washington.

Reviews

"Edward Mack pulls the Japanese literary field out of the regressive myth of autonomous art and into the realms of social discourse and material practice. He compels us to reconsider the role of literary production and publishing in constructing concepts of cultural authority, national identity, and empire. Manufacturing Modern Japanese Literature is a rich, rewarding work."oAnn Sherif, author of Japan's Cold War: Media, Literature, and the Law