BOOK NEWS: Japanese studies of Anaïs Nin

Critical Analysis of Anaïs Nin in Japan

EDITED BY PAUL HERRON

Sky Blue Press, 2023

ISBN: 979-8985524031

https://www.amazon.com/Critical-Analysis-Anais-Nin-Japan/dp/B0C2S3GF4Y

Since 1966 when Anaïs Nin visited Japan after the US publication of her Diary, Japanese scholars have been studying, analyzing and translating Nin's work. Little known abroad, Japanese Nin studies have been one of the most astute and consistent in the world. This English-language collection features works by Japanese scholars, writers and translators over the past several decades up to the present time and offers the reader a unique view of Anaïs Nin, the writer and the person. 

BOOK NEWS is an online-only feature announcing new publications in modernist and contemporary literary studies. These announcements do NOT constitute an endorsement by the Journal of Modern Literature.

These scholars, living in modern-day Japan, react to Nin in a way that crosses not only cultural lines, but literary ones as well. While certain of Nin’s readers in Japan welcome Nin’s liberated message and confessional diary-writing, they do so in spite of their own history of conformity, privacy, and their country’s literary history, which stands in stark contrast to that of America. In short, the critical response to Nin tells us just as much about the Japanese literary tradition as it does Nin’s writing and American literature in general.

Sixteen essays, with illustrations, make for an important addition to global Nin studies.