Vyjayanthi R. Selinger

Assistant Professor of Asian Studies

Spring 2009

  • Confession and Storytelling: Fictions of the Self in Modern Japanese Fiction (ASIAN 244)
  • INTERMEDIATE INDEPENDENT STUDY (ASIAN 291)
  • ADVANCED INDEPENDENT STUDY (ASIAN 401)
  • ADVANCED INDEPENDENT STUDY (ASIAN 402)
  • Intermediate Japanese II (JAPAN 204)
Phone (207) 798-4277
Title Assistant Professor
Department ASIAN STUDIES
Work Location 102 38 College Street
E-Mail vselinge@bowdoin.edu
Vyjayanthi Ratnam Selinger: Bowdoin College: Asian Studies

Education

Ph.D. Cornell, 2007
M.A. Harvard, 1998
B.A. Jawaharlal Nehru University, 1994

Research and Teaching Interests

Premodern and Modern Japanese literature, Japanese language, Theoretical approaches to history as narrative

Recent Courses

Asian 244
Confession and Story-telling: Fictions of the Self in Modern Japanese Fiction
We will examine the "rhetoric of confession" in Japanese literature. We will read major Japanese literary works from the twentieth century to ask the following questions. Why is first-person fiction attractive to story-tellers? When, how, and why does the "I" tell his/her story? How is the inward turn in narrative tied to modern ideas of the self and its relationship to society? What place does the reader occupy in such fiction? No previous knowledge of Japanese history or language is required.

Asian 201
Literature of World War II and the Atomic Bomb in Japan: History, Memory, and Empire
A study of Japan’s coming to terms with its imperialist past. Literary representations of Japan’s war in East Asia are particularly interesting because of the curious mixture of remembering and forgetting that mark its pages. Post-war fiction delves deep into what it meant for the Japanese people to fight a losing war, to be bombed by a nuclear weapon, to face surrender, and to experience Occupation. The course will shed light on the pacifist discourse that emerges in Atomic Bomb Literature and the simultaneous critique directed towards the Emperor System and wartime military leadership. We will also examine what is suppressed in these narratives—Japan’s history of colonialism and sexual slavery—by analyzing writings from the colonies (China, Korea, and Taiwan). Students will tackle the highly political nature of remembering in Japan and how it has been used to articulate race, gender and national identity in post-war Japan. Writers we will read include the Nobel prize-winning author Ôe Kenzaburô, Ôoka Shôhei, Kojima Nobuo, Shimao Toshio, Hayashi Kyoko, and East Asian literati like Yu Dafu, Lu Heruo, Ding Ling, and Wu Zhou Liu.

Japan 203
Intermediate Japanese I
An intermediate course in modern Japanese language, with introduction of advanced grammatical structures, vocabulary, and characters. Continuing emphasis on acquisition of well-balanced language skills based on an understanding of the actual use of the language in the Japanese socio-cultural context. Introduces an additional 100 kanji.

Japan 204
Intermediate Japanese II
This course is a continuation of Japanese 203 with the introduction of more advanced grammatical structures, vocabulary, and characters covering Lesson 19-23 of Genki II: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese. Continuing emphasis on acquisition of well-balanced language skills based on an understanding of the actual use of the language in the Japanese socio-cultural context. An additional 100 kanji will be introduced.

Publications and Translations

“The Sword Trope and the Birth of the Shogunate: Historical Metaphors in Muromachi Japan,” Japanese Language and Literature 43 (2009)

"換喩から提喩へ：「剣の巻」における歴史の形象 (From Metonymy to Synechdoche: Tropes of History in the Tsurugi no maki) ," Kokubungaku 52, no. 15 (2007)

Nihon bungaku rubitsuki sôsho (Japanese Short Stories Library), a compilation of annotated literary texts for advanced learners of Japanese.  Under review by Cornell University East Asia Series.

“Event as metaphor: Two narratives of Yoritomo in the fourteenth century,” Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies , West Lafayette, IN: AJLS, 2005.

Translation: Ogino Anna, “Uchi no okan ga ocha wo nomu, ” Japanese Women Writers: Twentieth Century Short Fiction, eds. Noriko Mizuta and Kyoko Selden, M. E. Sharpe, forthcoming. (Manuscript submitted to editors in summer 2005)

Translation: Iwasaki Minoru, “On Memory and History—The Tokyo Exhibit of ‘Representing Japanese, Dutch, and Indonesians—Memories of the Japanese Occupation of Indonesia (Dutch East Indies)’ and its issues,” Nederlanders Japanners Indonesiërs Een opmerkelijke Tentoonstelling, Amsterdam : Nederlands Instituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, 2002. (Co-translated with Izumi Nakayama)

Presentations and Conferences

“From Metonymy to Synecdoche: Tropes of history in the Tsurugi no maki,” Harvard-Yenching Institute Workshop, Harvard University, August 2007

“The Minamoto Clan as Sacred Sword: Myths of War-Making in the Muromachi Period,” Annual Meeting of the Midwest Conference on Asian Affairs,” University of Wisconsin-Madison, October 2006

“History and Narrative,” Interdisciplinary Roundtable “Lost and Found in Translation,” Cornell University Society for the Humanities, Ithaca, November 2004.

“Shifting Ground: Bandô in the Narrative Topography of the Heike Corpus,” Panel: “A Sense of Place: Medieval visions of Kamakura,” Thirteen Annual Meeting of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, University of Washington, Seattle, October 2004.

“Kenreimon’in and Performance in the Heike monogatari,” Panel: “Women, Religion, and Performance in Japan,” Asian Studies Conference Japan, Sophia University, Tokyo, June 2004.

“Salvation and the Figuration of Kenreimon’in in the Heike Corpus,” American Academy of Religion/Eastern International Meeting, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY,  April 2004.

Selected Academic Honors

Freeman Foundation Faculty Research Fellowship, Summer 2006
Japan Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, Jun. 2002—Feb. 2003
Joseph Fletcher Memorial Award for Excellence in writing of the M.A thesis, Harvard University, June 1998
Japanese Government (Mombusho) Scholarship in Japanese Studies, Nagoya University, 1994-1995