Join us for an online talk by Dr. Anri Yasuda (University of Virginia), whose most recent monograph Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930 was published by Columbia University Press in June 2024.
The monograph examines how writers, living through a period of profound changes in Japanese culture and society, had viewed literature as an avenue not just for critical engagement with lived realities, but also the pursuit of aesthetic ideals. Yasuda focuses on how Meiji- and Taishō-period writers’ interest in the visual arts and the dynamics of visuality shaped their understanding of literature’s unique expressive potentials, including its capacity to appeal affectively to both subjective and inter-subjective sensibilities. Through her analyses of texts by authors like Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), Yasuda argues that timeless questions about beauty are at the heart of modern literature’s ability to illumine the inimitable experiences of being human.
This talk is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation Toronto.
Date & Time:
Friday, October 10, 2025 | 4:00pm – 5:30pm PT
Location:
Online via Zoom
Speaker
Anri Yasuda is an Assistant Professor of Japanese Literature at the University of Virginia. Her Ph.D. is from Columbia University. Her research, publications, and teaching explore the literature, visual arts, and culture of Japan from the late nineteenth century to the present. Anri investigates aesthetic theory and the connections between various artistic mediums, representations of gender and corporality, and transnational artistic exchanges. Her monograph, Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930, was published by Columbia University Press in 2024.
