Beauty Matters

Charles Inouye, Tufts University:
In this important book, Yasuda takes on the perennially pressing question of literature’s value in society through investigating the aesthetic philosophies of key modern Japanese writers. Her deft close readings of texts that compare the literary and visual arts are remarkably illuminating.

Rachael Hutchinson, University of Delaware:
In this bold rereading of four literary giants from the Meiji-Taishō period—Sōseki, Ōgai, Akutagawa, and Mushanokōji—Anri Yasuda deftly analyzes their aesthetics while also revealing the ideology and critical engagement that lie behind their artistic ideals. Placing the writers in dialogue with each other, Yasuda shows how they understood ‘literature’ as a conceptual register to think through real-world questions, connecting closely with their subject matter and their readers, then and now.