TALLAHASSEE, FL — Florida State Open Publishing (FSOP) is pleased to announce the release of Hemingway Studies in Japan, a new open-access volume that introduces decades of Japanese Hemingway criticism to a global academic audience. The publication represents a major international collaboration between Japanese Hemingway scholars Kaori Fairbanks of Bunkyo Gakuin University and Hideo Tsuji of Keio University, American Hemingway scholar Margaret E. Wright-Cleveland of Florida State University, and the FSU Libraries’ Office of Digital Research and Scholarship librarians Aaron Rodriguez and Landis Grenville.
The collection brings together sixteen chapters originally written in Japanese by prominent Hemingway scholars, translated for the first time and newly available to English-speaking readers. While Ernest Hemingway’s influence on American literature is well-documented, a long tradition of Hemingway scholarship has existed in Japan since the author’s lifetime. This collaborative volume fills a geographical and linguistic gap in the field, offering critical analyses of Hemingway’s work and reception both during his time and in the context of Japanese culture and scholarship. This collection presents far-ranging insights into Hemingway’s work, exploring new interpretations of race, gender, ecology, religion, visual art, literary influence, and editing practices within the context of Hemingway’s life and prose.
“As a scholar who studies presentations of race in Hemingway, I was humbled that I knew so little about the more than half a century of research by Japanese scholars on Hemingway,” said Margaret E. Wright-Cleveland, co-editor of the volume. “I jumped at the chance to work on English-language editing of this scholarship because it gave me a chance to immerse myself in perspectives on Hemingway new to me. I am drawn to projects that create opportunities for conversation between thinkers previously unknown to each other.”
Alongside the exploration of Hemingway’s work, scholars consider the reception of Hemingway in Japan over the 20th and 21st centuries and the role his works have played in Japanese culture and pedagogy. This collection is framed by an exploration of the history of translation and critical studies of Hemingway in Japan since his debut novel. It raises questions about the multiplicity of an author’s role, reception, and literary identity across a transnational readership. As an act of translation itself, Hemingway Studies in Japan returns Hemingway to English readers through the critical lens of Japanese scholarship, adding depth to the long interpretive history of Hemingway studies.
Availability
Hemingway Studies in Japan is now available fully open-access and can be read and downloaded at: doi.org/10.33009/fsop_hemingway0726
Praise for Hemingway Studies in Japan
“One cannot help but conclude after reading this book that Hemingway studies has been thriving in Japan for a long time and the entire field is better for it. Kudos to the editors and authors for making this exciting work available to an English-speaking audience.” — Debra A. Moddelmog, Dean of Liberal Arts Emerita, University of Nevada, Reno; editor of Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises
“This groundbreaking collection offers Anglophone readers an opportunity to learn from and participate in the scholarly discourse of our Asian colleagues, and it offers new interpretations of Hemingway through a transnational, transhistorical perspective.” — Verna Kale, Pennsylvania State University
