Off Center: Power and Culture Relations Between Japan and the United States

by Masao Miyoshi

Book Overview

What is the connection between the United States' imbalance of trade with Japan and the imbalance of translation in the other direction? Between Western literary critics' estimates of Japanese fiction and Japanese politicians' "America-bashing"? Between the portrayal of East-West relations in the film Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence and the terms of the GATT trade agreements?

In this provocative study, Masao Miyoshi deliberately adopts...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674631765
• ISBN13: 9780674631762
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 289 Pages
• Weight: 0.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Late Great Masao Miyoshi

The book is brilliant in connecting modern Japanese history to questions of transnational culture, film, literature, etc. Ramifications touch upon the place of literature, in particular, in a global history of imperialism/colonialism. He simply has insights nobody else has, attributable to the fact that Miyoshi was truly an "off-center" human being, and proud of being able to use that position (somewhere between the University of Tokyo and New York-Chicago-Berkeley-San Diego) to his critical advantage.

good book

honestly I have only read parts of the book, but of those that I've read, I think Miyoshi does a great job discussing notions of power withing Japan, and various phases of contact between Japan and the 'west'. There is a great chapter on Junichiro Tanizaki entitled: "the Lure of the West." and another chapter on Japanese women and women writers discusses how women pose a threat to the traditional patriarchy in Japan. Overall a really good book about Japanese contact with 'others'. i plan on reading the entire book after finals.