Text and the City

Maeda Ai was one of the most prominent and influential public intellectuals of late-twentieth-century Japan.Text and the Cityis the first book of his work to appear in English. A literary and cultural critic deeply engaged with European critical thought, Maeda was a brilliant, insightful theorist of modernity for whom the city was the embodiment of modern life. He conducted a far-reaching inquiry into changing conceptions of space, temporality, and visual practices as they give shape to the city and its inhabitants. James A. Fujii has assembled a selection of Maeda's essays that question and explore the contours of Japanese modernity and resonate with the concerns of literary and cultural studies today. Maeda remapped the study of modern Japanese literature and culture in the 1970s and 1980s, helping to generate widespread interest in studying mass culture on the one hand and marginalized sectors of modern Japanese society on the other. These essays reveal the broad range of Maeda's cultural criticism. Among the topics considered are Tokyo, utopias, prisons, visual media technologies including panoramas and film, the popular culture of the Edo, Meiji, and contemporary periods, maps, and women's magazines. Integrally related to these discussions are Maeda's readings of works of Japanese literature including Matsubara Iwagoro'sIn Darkest Tokyo, Nagai Kafucirc;'sThe Fox, Higuchi Ichiyocirc;'sGrowing Up, Kawabata Yasunari'sThe Crimson Gang of Asakusa, and Narushima Ryucirc;hoku's short story "Useless Man." Illuminating the infinitely rich phenomena of modernity, these essays are full of innovative, unexpected connections between cultural productions and urban life, between the text and the city.

Maeda Ai (1931-1987) was a renowned Japanese literary and cultural critic. He taught at Rikkyo University James A. Fujii is Associate Professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of California, Irvine