Intertexts

R e v i e w s At,Maeda.TextandtheCity:EssaysonJapaneseModernity.Editedandwith anintroductionbyJamesFujii.Durham,NC:DukeUP ,2004.xv+391pp. In atime when multidisciplinarity has become the hallmark of literary and cul¬ turalstudies,thereismuchtostimulateandinspirescholarsintheworkofMaeda Ai (1932-1987). Maeda’s scholarly approach was not the standard of his field, which was rigorously discipline-based, and within literary studies, strongly author-centered.Aflexible and brilliant mind led Maeda to synthesize theories andinterpretationsofliteratureandthephysical,concretecontexts—urbanset¬ tings,specificreadersandwriters—outofwhichliterarytextsdevelop. WhilehehasbeencomparedtoRaymondWilliams(whoseworkhedeploys), perhapsthebestwaytothinkofMaedaisasacrossbetweenRaymondWilliams, especially in their mutual positions as public intellectuals, and Stephen GreenblattandtheNewHistoricismscholarshiptowhichhegaverise .JustasGreenblattwasinstrumentalinmovingliterarystudiesbeyondtheprimarilytextual ,so, too,wasMaedamostsignificantinJapaninhisoutputofa“culturalpoetics”that, like the work of the New Historicists, uses social and cultural history to deepen our understandings of particular texts, while at the evidenceforunderstandingsocialandhistoricalconditions.Maedamastereda wide range of theoretical, cultural, and literary texts, originating in both Japan andelsewhere,andmuchofhisworkdemonstratesanidealwayofreadingand understandingliterarytextsthroughthebroadcontextualizationallowedbytak¬ ingamultidisciplinaryapproach.Whilehemaybringinmanykindsoftextsand refertomanytheoreticalstancesinasingleessay,heneveroffersthemforthe sakeofshowinghiserudition,butrather,eachcontributestothecomplexfabric ofexplicationthatheweavesintheexplorationoftexts. WithMaeda,“exploring”istheoperativeword,becauseasignificantmodus operandi of his scholarship and life involved explorations of urban space, the urbanspaceofmodernJapaneseliteratureandmodernJapaneseculture.The examinationshemadeoflayersofurbanformationfoundonhispurposefulper¬ ambulations—hispracticewastoengagewiththeurbancontextsofthetextshe readbywalkingthroughthesitesoftheirsettingsand/orcreation,exploringtheir frontandbackways—allowedhimtoseetheearlymodern(eighteenthandnine¬ teenthcenturies)substrateinthesensibilities,practices,andproductionsof modernity.Ashasbeenfrequentlypointedout,inmanywaysmodernityisthe centralsubjectofMaeda’swork,andcertainlymodernitystandsatthecenterof theselectionsinTextandtheCity,thusitssubtide:EssaysonJapaneseModernity. Maeda’s spatial approach to understanding texts by exploring their meanings in theiractualphysicalsettings,togetherwithhisdeepknowledgeofearlymodern time using literature as s a m e Intertexts,Vo\. 12, No. 1-2 2008 ©TexasTech University Press I N T E R T E X T S 7 4 and modern literature and his great familiarity with Japanese and non-Japanese criticism, led to extraordinarily rich and stimulating treatments of literary texts and what they reveal about Japanese modernity. To read one of the essays is not just to appreciate adazzling mix and synthesis of information and insight, but it is also to become awalker like Maeda, following asimilar process of investigation and discovery. The group of eleven essays. Foreword, Introduction, and Afterword that make up Text and the City: Essays on Japanese Modernity have now made the insights and methods of this most accomplished and formidable literary and cultural critic available in English. Maeda’s particular range of interests is clear from the four categories into which James Fujii has organized the well-chosen essays trans¬ lated for this volume: “Light City, Dark City: Visualizing the Modern,” in which Maeda discusses texts that contrast the early modern space of Edo (the pre-1868 name for Tokyo) and its inhabitants with the modern transformation of the city into Tokyo; “Play, Space, and Mass Culture,” in which Maeda examines texts focusing on people affected by rapid modernization: “Text, Space, Visuality,” which explains how the effect of changes in reading practices and printing prac¬ tices marked modernity in Japan; and “Crossing Boundaries in Urban Space,” whichlooksatpivotaltextsinthegreattransitionalmomentinJapanesemoder¬ nity.Todescribeeachsectionwithasummarystatement,however,issomewhat misleading, because aMaeda essay is always working on several integrated levels, suchthattheworkoffittingtheessaysintofourbroadcategoriesmusthavebeen work indeed. InordertogetafeelforMaeda’smethod,considertheessay“FromCommunal Performance to Solitary Reading: The Rise of the Modern Japanese Reader.” Maeda first considers premodern communal reading practices, family life, liter¬ acy rates, and the repercussions of limited literacy, particularly for nonelite femalereaders.Limitedliteracyledtoreadingaloudbythosewiththenecessary skills,ofteninfamilysettings,apracticeMaedaexploresandgivesevidencefor throughfictionalaccounts.Forexample,“ShungyoHachimankanendepictsFukagawageishawhUingtheafternoonawayreadingrentalbooks ,andinTheMaid¬ ens of the Seven Spring Flowers [Otome Nanakusa] ayoung woman begs her older sister,theproprietessofapleasureboat,toreadtoher”(227).Inreferringtoread¬ ing scenes in the work of early modern writerTamenaga Shunsui (1790-1844), Maeda explains that “such scenes not only faithfully portray the reader of ninjdbon [a popular fiction genre], but also provide [Shunsui’s] readers with hints abouthowtoreadandenjoyhiswork.Theyalsoholdoneofthekeystounlock¬ ingthemysteryofShunsui’swritingstyle,whichwasdesignedtopleasetheear” (227). Maeda used the remainder of this seminal article to further explore these ideasandtheirrelationships,exposingdifferentkindsofreading-aloudpractices, thespecificsofthelanguagethattheyfavored(e.g.,onomatopoeia),andthesocial and literary changes—to style and content—that the modern-period move to solitaryreadingbothreflectedandengendered. R e v i e w s 7 5 “The Panorama of Enlightenment” draws its insights from acomparison of two literary works on the city, the first Tales of Edo Prosperity (1832-1836) and the second New Tales of Tokyo Prosperity (1874). Taken together, they give evi¬ dence of ashift from early modern Edo as an inhabited space of communal play between people, to modernizing Tokyo as aspace of consumption where “the mode of interaction is rather between people and things” (83). Water-linked Edo is found to be aplace of community and meaningful...