WELCOME TO LIBERLIT 7

LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
WELCOME TO LIBERLIT 7
The 7th Annual Liberlit Conference
for Discussion and Defense of
The Role of ‘Literary’ Texts in the English Curriculum
Theme for Liberlit 7:
Intercultural Limits and Liminality
Plenary Speaker for Liberlit 7:
TAKAYUKI TATSUMI
The Barren Land of Figures:
the Intellectual Limits and Liminality of Auerbach, de Man and Mizumura
Admission: ¥3,000
Student Admission Free
1
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
LIBERLIT MANIFESTO
We believe literature to be an essential element of the English curriculum in Japan, and its vital future
presence must be ensured and defended. By ‘literature’, we mean authentic texts that use language
in creative and careful ways to tell stories, convey impressions, express original opinions, pose critical
questions and demand more than simplistic, pragmatic responses. Those texts could include poetry,
novels, plays, short stories or thoughtful authentic writings on culture, society, or history. Teaching literature always means teaching much more than just language.
Liberlit will explore the idea that it is unkind and disingenuous to deprive students of the marvelously
varied, meaningful, and challenging content that only great works of literature and thoughtful authentic
writings on culture can offer. We will also investigate and expound techniques, methods, and ways that
literary texts can foreground the roots of education, liberate English language into maturely creative
uses and instigate a freer, bolder expression of original opinions. With your participation, we hope
Liberlit will continue to encourage an active and collaborative community of thought, reflection, inquiry
and discussion on why literature should rightly figure in Japan’s English curriculum.
Theme for LIBERLIT 7
Intercultural Limits and Liminality
Literature conveys subtle truths universal to the human condition. The best study of literature engenders personal responses in student readers and allows them to achieve moments of epiphany, discovery and personal transformation. Literature is a product of and a response to specific cultural epochs
and milieus that can erect barriers to student understanding and personal engagement. Yet literature
also acts as a liminal bridge to cultural understanding; when students become engrossed in literature
they often seem to lose an awareness of cultural limitations. How can we as teachers lead our students
across these cultural borders, so that they begin to see and understand a literary text from within its
original cultural perspective and in doing so become more intercultural themselves? How can we aid
our students in negotiating cultural limits, shepherding them across textual thresholds, so that reading
literature becomes a more engrossing, intercultural experience? This year’s Liberlit Conference will focus on all aspects of teaching and learning that bridge cultural limits and enrich the reading experience.
Noriyuki Harada & Neil Addison
2
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
LIBERLIT 7 Postgraduate Presentation Contest
The Liberlit conference is an ongoing forum for literature teachers and academics based in Japan that
addresses attitudes and approaches to literary texts in English, but Liberlit also wishes to offer an international yet Japan-based platform for promising young scholars to showcase and present their research.
Liberlit 7 will therefore feature a postgraduate parallel session in which English literature students will
present 20 minute papers summarizing scholastic work from their masters or doctorate study. At the
conclusion of the presentation contest a panel of three academic judges will award a prize to the best
postgraduate literature paper. Following the contest Liberlit 7 will feature a chaired panel discussion
on academic career development that will give postgraduate students the chance to ask questions and
obtain valuable career advice.
Noriyuki Harada & Neil Addison
3
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
Room A = 9101 (Building 9, 1st floor)
Room B = 9102 (Building 9, 1st floor)
Room C = 9103 (Building 9, 1st floor)
TIME
9:00 ~ 9:40
9:40 ~ 10:00
EVENT
On-site Registration. Meet Your Fellow Attendees.
Words of Welcome and Introductory Remarks
[Noriyuki Harada & Neil Addison] [Room A]
4
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PANEL 1 [Room A Chaired by Kumiko Hoshi]
Returnee Perspectives on English Literature
[Dawn Lucovich & Amy Holdsworth]
Promoting Learner Autonomy Through Storytelling
[Esmat Azizi]
Crossing the Intercultural Border: Utilizing Picture Books in EFL Classrooms
[Yuka Kusanagi]
PANEL 2 [Room B Chaired by Michael Pronko]
Redefining Haiku:
Exploring Textual and Linguistic Features of Second Language Haiku Writing
[Atsushi Iida]
10:00-11:20
Poetry, Culture, and Accessibility
[Jane Joritz-Nakagawa]
La Mano del Escritor (The Writer’s Hand):
A Case for Introducing Latina Poetry in English Class
[Quenby Hoffman Aoki]
POSTGRADUATE SESSION A [Room C Chaired by Eiichi Hara]
Toni Morrison’s Female Relationships in Her Novels and the Connections
with Deleuze and Guattari’s Work
[Nozomi Harada]
The Importance of Place in Tom’s Midnight Garden
[Satomi Isobe]
Rethinking the 60s in Vonnegut’s Way: Concerning the Cynicism of a Humorist
[Tomoharu Watanabe]
5
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PANEL 3 [Room A Chaired by Thomas Dabbs]
Religion and Politics in Anne of Green Gables
[Chutatip Yumitani]
11:30 ~ 12:50
Why Literature Matters: Teaching Social Issues through the Lens of the Short
Story
[Samantha Landau]
How Japanese Students See Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982)
[Yuko Hori]
6
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PANEL 4 [Room B Chaired by Akiko Mizoguchi]
Is There a Teacher in This Class?
[Akiyoshi Suzuki]
Crossing Cultural Borders, Bringing Students Along
[Anna Husson Isozaki]
Experiencing Tumultuous Asia
[Lisa Yinghong Li]
11:30 ~ 12:50
POSTGRADUATE SESSION B [Room C Chaired by Eiichi Hara]
“I was born for a good tyrant!”:
Boyishness in Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Master of Ballantrae
[Masao Morishige]
Liminality in A. L. Lloyd’s Ballads, ‘Jack Orion’ and ‘Reynardine’
[Emi Hirose]
Criticism of True Womanhood in ‘Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl’
[Hikaru Ishiyama]
LUNCH:
12:50 ~ 14:10
Baroque Chamber Music of England Concert [13:10 -14:00]
[Barnaby Ralph & Ayako Otomo] [Room 23100]
7
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PANEL 5 [Room A Chaired by Noriyuki Harada]
In the Dead Core of Positivist Historicism:
History or Negativity in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and the Humanities
[Fuhito Endo]
Re-Orienting Romanticism:
the Impact of Revised Periodisation on Contemporary Literary Study
[Steve Clark]
Liminality Across The Disciplines;
A History of Language Communication Skills in Higher Education
[Ayako Otomo]
PANEL 6 [Room B Chaired by Laurence Williams]
14:10-15:30
Recast, Recycle, Remix: Multiliteracy Approaches to Cultural Understanding
[Darren Elliott]
Transnational Screenplays as Literary Texts for Intercultural Awareness
[Alexander McAulay]
The Limits of Humanity: Identity and Liminality in Never Let Me Go (2005 and
2010)
[Alex Watson]
POSTGRADUATE SESSION C [Room C Chaired by Eiichi Hara]
Temporal/Geographical Individuality and Universality in
Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
[Ai Watanabe]
The Wolf on Display in Hanoverian Little Red Riding Hoods
[Misako Takahashi]
‘Atalanta and Victorian Feminist Propaganda’
[Yukiko Muta]
8
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PANEL 7 [Room A Chaired by Dawn Lucovitch]
A Practical Report on “Reading Circles”:
An Attempt to Incorporate Literature in English Classes at Universities
[Kumiko Hoshi]
L2 Literature Circles as Liminal Rite of Separation
[Paul Sevigny]
Questioning as the Center of Literature Study
[Michael Pronko]
PANEL 8 [Room B Chaired by Fuhito Endo]
Reading Süskind: the Hierarchy of Sense
[Barnaby Ralph & Iori Ohashi]
15:40 ~ 17:00
Translations: From Word to Word, or to Cultural Meaning
[Eucharia Donnery]
Fusion of Horizons: Teaching the Bible in Japan
[Thomas Dabbs]
POSTGRADUATE SESSION D [Room C Chaired by Neil Addison]
Panel Symposium on Academic Career Development
[Noriyuki Harada]
[Alex Watson]
[Laurence Williams]
[Steve Clark]
[Masahiko Abe]
[and more…]
9
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
CONFERENCE SCHEDULE
TIME
EVENT
PLENARY TALK [Room B]
17:10 ~ 18:10
The Barren Land of Figures:
the Intellectual Limits and Liminality of Auerbach, de Man and Mizumura
[Takayuki Tatsumi]
‘Lightning Discussion’, Concluding Remarks
18:10 ~ 18:25
18:30 ~ 20:30
[Noriyuki Harada & Neil Addison] [Room B]
POST-CONFERENCE PARTY:
TWCU Conference Buffet and Drinks Reception
10
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PRESENTATION DETAILS
PANEL 1 (10.00-11.20) Room A
1A. Returnee Perspectives on English Literature
Presenter: Dawn Lucovich & Amy Holdsworth
Abstract: Returnees to Japan exist in an interstitial space between two educational cultures, yet their
attitudes, preferences, and knowledge about English literature are underinvestigated compared to
research into their thoughts and feelings about identity (Kanno, 2003), about returning to Japan (Yoshida
et. al., 2009) or issues regarding second language acquisition or language teaching (Rose & Fujishima,
1994). Much has been written about Japanese versus Western pedagogies, but the intersection of both
-- in the form of returnee programs -- has been overlooked. Such programs are designed to prepare
students for universities overseas and may emphasize the archetypal Western canon despite the
current trend towards more inclusive, diverse texts. This presentation will highlight data collected from
instructor and returnee perspectives on what constitutes the Western canon, and how to choose texts
in consideration of the special demands of this demographic. Biographical Data: Dawn Lucovich currently teaches in the Department of Literature and Culture at
Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. She received her M.A. in Education from Columbia University and
is a Ph.D. candidate at Temple University. Her research interests include assessment and standardized
testing, writing centers in Asia, and returnee students in Japan.
Biographical Data: Amy Holdsworth received her M.A. in the Teaching of English from Columbia University
and is a licensed US secondary school teacher. She currently works for Shibuya Kyoiku Gakuen. She has
been in Japan for a decade, the majority of which she has spent teaching returnees. She is interested in
determining text selection for language arts classrooms, especially for students between worlds.
1B. Promoting Learner Autonomy Through Storytelling
Presenter: Esmat Azizi
Abstract: This paper looks at creative writing as a means to embrace and promote learner autonomy
in EFL teaching. Creative writing has been considered as an effective form of self-expression in many
fields, even therapeutic for psychiatric patients and prison inmates. However, despite its huge potential
as an empowering tool, its application in an EFL setting has seen little attention. Although motivating
learners to write genuinely original essays and reports is important, it remains a huge challenge for many
teachers. Since the majority of EFL curricula fundamentally focus on academic writing, creative writingoriented learners feel left out. This study will look at learners’ attitude towards creative writing and how
its introduction in the classroom can revitalise the learning process through learners’ engagement and
11
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
self-expression. My observation and the results of this study show that the majority of learners have a
more positive attitude towards creative writing because it allows them the freedom to experiment with
their new language and express their ‘truer’ selves in the process. Biographical Data: Esmat Azizi was born in Afghanistan and grew up in the United Kingdom and Japan.
He has a BA in political studies from Leeds University and an MA in political theory from the London
School of Economics (LSE). Currently he teaches English at Kyoto Sangyo University. Previously he taught
at Kwansei Gakuin University (2010-2015). Outside work he enjoys photography, cycling, and reading.
His main passion is writing fiction, simply to make sense of the world. 1C. Crossing the Intercultural Border: Utilizing Picture Books in EFL Classrooms
Presenter: Yuka Kusanagi
Abstract: As frequently noted, Japanese learners’ English proficiency is still limited. Nevertheless,
society’s needs for English education have been more demanding since the Japanese government
started promoting Global Human Resource Development in 2011. In its paradigm, learners are expected
to achieve high proficiency in English and communication, and to have a deep understanding of other
cultures, as well as strong identity as Japanese. Multiple methods to approach the educational goals
exist. One potential approach is to use juvenile literature such as picture books. With careful selection,
picture books can provide EFL learners with rich input at their level and an authentic message with a
touch of cross-culture. In addition, visual images draw readers into the world of the story. They can cross
the border of two language cultures unconsciously and consciously simultaneously, in an amusing way.
This paper introduces how picture books are adapted into an EFL reading course in order to connect
learning English and its culture. Learners are able to build intercultural awareness by seeking both
commonness and differences across cultures. Moreover, the paper reports how learners reacted to
the instruction, and discusses the possibility of developing their intercultural awareness within the
culturally limited space of an EFL classroom.
Biographical Data: Yuka Kusanagi is an associate professor at Gunma University. She has taught English
language at various educational institutions in Japan. She received her Ed.D. in TEFL from Temple
University. Her academic interests include investigating nonverbal communication in a foreign language,
primarily teacher gesture, teaching English through arts (Gundoku/Reader’s Theatre, drama, literature,
art), extensive reading, and learner autonomy. Dr. Kusanagi has published and presented on teacher
gesture, teaching English through arts, extensive reading, English for specific purposes, and curriculum
development.
12
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 2 (10.00-11.20) Room B
2A. Redefining Haiku: Exploring Textual and Linguistic Features of Second
Language Haiku Writing
Presenter: Atsushi Iida
Abstract: Using a culturally familiar genre to second language (L2) learners is regarded as an effective
approach for L2 literacy practice. In the Japanese context, some teachers are interested in teaching
haiku -a three-line Japanese poem with a specific number of syllables- as a way for L2 literacy development (Iida, 2012, in press). Previous study reports on the usage of haiku in college English courses from
practical viewpoints, but we know very little about the poems produced by L2 writers. The fact is that
there exists no clear description of haiku in English as a Second Language or Foreign Language in L2
writing research. The aim of this presentation is to clarify the linguistic and textual features of haiku
written by EFL learners. The presenter will first discuss the issue of second language haiku writing and
then describe a quantitative study of poetic texts written by 164 college freshmen in Japan. This presentation will provide teachers and researchers of poetry writing with a general description of second
language haiku writing.
Biographical Data: Atsushi Iida is an Assistant Professor in the University Education Center at Gunma
University, where he has taught first-year and second-year English courses. He was awarded his Ph.D. in
English (Composition and TESOL) at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA. His research interests
include second language writing, literature in second language education, writing for academic publication, and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). He has published his work in various journals including
Scientific Study of Literature, English Teaching Forum, Asian EFL Journal, Assessing Writing, and The Language
Teacher.
2B. Poetry, Culture, and Accessibility
Presenter: Jane Joritz-Nakagawa
Abstract: As a teacher I’ve learned that in order to comprehend / discuss / write about poems among
other things students attempt to take the perspective of the speakers in the poems. Even though these
speakers may be from other countries students generally do not have much difficulty entering and empathizing with the (imagined) perspectives of speakers. Some poems prompt students to expand their
thinking as they illustrate points of view or behaviours less common or mainstream in Japan or otherwise differing from their own experience. The idea here I believe is not to “change” students but to get
students to examine their own thinking and try to understand the perspectives of others -- whether or
not to change their thinking is a decision only students make. An issue for teachers of poetry will always
be accessibility. In addition to unfamiliar cultural (defined not only by national boundaries but by such
things as gender, disability, sexual orientation, class, age, sociocultural outlook, religion and other factors) viewpoints and behaviours, poems can present unfamiliar words and ways of using language and
form, as well as may come from different eras and unfamiliar places. How can such poems be made accessible? I believe this is both a matter of careful materials selection and expert teaching. I will present
13
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
a variety of examples of poems and techniques/activities for using them which can be successfully used
in a Japanese classroom with learners of various language levels and backgrounds.
Biographical Data: Originally from the U.S.A., Jane Joritz-Nakagawa has lived in Japan since 1989. She
currently teaches English part-time at Shizuoka University, Tokoha University and Shizuoka University
of Art and Culture while working full-time as a poet and researcher in the area of poetry (especially
but not only concerning feminism and poetry by women). Her last full time tenured position was as
associate professor at a national university of education in central Japan. Currently she is working on
her ninth full length collection of poems, as editor of an anthology of innovative transcultural poetry by
women, and numerous other projects related to poetry and to pedagogy including papers, academic
society presentations and interviews. Her work both in terms of poetry and academics has been widely
published in journals and books in numerous countries (including the U.S., England, Canada, Australia,
Japan, Germany, Greece, and Brazil).
2C. La Mano del Escritor (The Writer’s Hand):
A Case for Introducing Latina Poetry in English Class
Presenter: Quenby Hoffman Aoki
Abstract: Since Latinos constitute the largest ethnic minority in the U.S. population, being at least somewhat familiar with Latino culture and the Spanish language is a part of growing up in America. Thus,
Latino Literature is in fact American Literature, and students of American Literature should know about
it. Many works by Latino writers include Spanish words, reflecting the bilingual, ethnically-mixed reality of life and cultural identity for millions of Latinos and their neighbors. There is a wealth of beautiful, thought-provoking works to choose from, largely unexplored in English classrooms in Japan, with
themes both culturally-specific and universal. Since culture, race, and gender are ideally viewed in context and in connection with one another, focusing on the works of Latina (female) writers adds gender
issues to the discussion, encouraging an intersectional approach. While many excellent novels are available, poetry has the added benefits of being short, strongly language-focused, and emotionally intense,
which allows readers to connect personally with the works, even if the cultural or linguistic background
is “foreign”. This presentation will focus on works by Latina poets, which have been read and enjoyed
by students at two Tokyo universities. A handout including activities, resources, and suggested poems
will be provided.
Biographical Data: Quenby Hoffman Aoki teaches in the English Literature Department at Sophia University, and includes literature, global issues, and fluency practice in her classes whenever possible.
Her research interests include literature in the language classroom, global issues (especially gender,
race, and environmental problems), fluency, and all aspects of the writing process. She has presented
at Liberlit 2014, Women Educators and Language Learners (WELL), and JALT’s College and University
Educators Special Interest Group (CUE), and has two articles forthcoming this spring. She has been
scribbling in various notebooks her whole life and shows no signs of stopping. At other times, her nose
is buried in a book.
14
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
POSTGRADUATE SESSION A (10.00-11.20) Room C
Postgraduate Session A1. Toni Morrison’s Female Relationships in Her Novels and
the Connections with Deleuze and Guattari’s Work
Presenter: Nozomi Harada
Abstract: This presentation explores the tropes of mother-daughter relationships and female friendships in the novels of Toni Morrison, because I believe they are an essential structure for survival in the
isolated and unhappy lives of many of the characters. I will examine this theme using the concepts of
limit, culture borders, and personal transformation in the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. This
is a part of my research for the first year of my MA degree. My research will focus for the most part on
the characters in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Beloved, because I think they explore the limits of sadness, depression, passivity, and the possibility of personal transformation through friendship.
Biographical Data: Nozomi Harada studies in the Graduate School of Humanities at Kanto Gakuin University. Her research is on the role of the ‘black community’ in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye.
Postgraduate Session A2. The Importance of Place in Tom’s Midnight Garden
Presenter: Satomi Isobe
Abstract: This paper examines the importance of place in Philippa Pearce’s Tom’s Midnight Garden (1958).
Tom’s Midnight Garden is a time fantasy: in British time fantasies, place is necessary to convey each
theme of the story. The characteristic of a time fantasy is a fixed place. In Tom’s Midnight Garden, the garden not only symbolizes childhood, but also plays an important role which connects the present to the
past. The protagonist of this story, Tom, understands “time” and the mortality of life through communication with a girl called Hatty in the garden, and the existence of people of that time. This suggests that
children need a “Sense of Place” to understand the notion of “life” or “time.” Tom’s Midnight Garden is a
story of place, that is, a story of children’s “Sense of Place” as a recollection of Pearce’s “Sense of Place.”
Biographical Data: Satomi Isobe is an MA student in the Division of Humanities and Cultures, at Tokyo
Woman’s Christian University. She is studying British children’s literature, and her research interest is
“Place” in the time fantasies of the 20th century.
Postgraduate Session A3. Rethinking the 60s in Vonnegut’s Way: Concerning the
Cynicism of a Humorist
Presenter: Tomoharu Watanabe
Abstract: Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is well known as his representative work, and has been
discussed as an anti-war novel based on the author’s own experiences in World War II by using the
genre of Science-Fiction. He is also famous for his humorous writing style. Accordingly, his writings are
15
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
often categorized as satirical novels. The sense of satiric, humorous or black humor is needed because
of people’s feeling of despair; the fact that it’s getting difficult to accept the world in these times. In
such situations, people in every era have tried to change negativity into laughter in order to overcome
it. And today, the world situation is getting worse, thus the need of such novels is also getting definitely
higher. I would therefore like to rethink Vonnegut in terms of his humor, humanism and form, whilst
consequently, also rethinking the 60s in America.
Biographical Data: Tomoharu Watanabe is in the first year of his master’s program of English Literature
in the Graduate School of Language and Society, Hitotsubashi University. His research interests are
“humor”, “irony” and “parody” in Kurt Vonnegut’s works.
16
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 3 (11.30-12:50) Room A
3A. Religion and Politics in Anne of Green Gables
Presenter: Chutatip Yumitani
Abstract: It is easy to show a picture of a dress with puffed sleeves to students for them to see and
understand Anne of Green Gables which was written in 1908 and set on Prince Edward Island in Canada
from within its original cultural perspective, but it is not easy to explain to them the theological underpinnings of the characters’ religious activities or their political leaning. Religion and politics play an
important role in the book. Upon adopting Anne, Marilla immediately teaches her the Lord’s Prayer
and Matthew believes providence brought Anne to them. Politically, Marilla, a conservative, goes to a
political meeting with Mrs. Lynde, a liberal and at 11, Anne wants to be a conservative. Not knowing the
difference between a liberal and a conservative and what Anne does at Sunday school may be discouraging for some students, but it may trigger curiosity in others that will lead them to want to understand
more and become more intercultural. The presentation discusses how non-English-major EFL university
level students respond to their cultural limitations while reading Anne of Green Gables and how important it is for students to see and understand a literary text from within its original cultural perspective.
Biographical Data: Chutatip Yumitani received B.A. (English and French) and M.A. (English) from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and M.A. (Formal/Computational Linguistics) and Ph. D. (Linguistics/
First Language Acquisition) from University of Kansas, U.S.A. She has taught at universities in Thailand
and at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University in Beppu. She has also taught International Baccalaureate
Language A1 (Literature) at Bangkok Patana School, a British international school in Thailand. She’s currently teaching at Tohoku Fukushi University and Miyagi Gakuin Women’s University in Sendai.
3B. Why Literature Matters: Teaching Social Issues through the Lens of the Short
Story
Presenter: Samantha Landau
Abstract: In learning about literature, history, and contemporary social issues, students must create emotional connections to the material in order to fully appreciate its significance. A literary text’s
themes or a character’s struggles can demonstrate how little the world has changed in 50, 100, or
even 200 years. Thus, literary fiction caneducate us about social structure and societal problems. In
my classroom, a combination of discussion questions that focus on eliciting empathy and entwining it
with the importance of history aid in teaching social issues through the lens of literature. An increasing amount of scientific research seems to prove that literary texts have the power to teach empathy.
Beginning in the later part of the last decade, an increasing number of studies have been done on the
relationship between fiction and eliciting empathy for others. Studies such as the one by Castano and
Kidd (2013) and books such as Suzanne Keen’s Empathy and the Novel (2007) have demonstrated how
literature aids in the understanding of social structures and interpersonal relationships. The most easily approachable format for ESL students seems to be the short story; thus, my approach has focused
mainly on utilizing stories less than 30 pages in length. Each discussion begins with identifying basics
such as setting, character, theme, and motif. Thereafter, critical thinking questions force students to
17
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
consider their understanding of modern social issues such as mental health, interpersonal and domestic violence, bullying, and slavery. In this lecture I will explain my approach, and how I utilize this method
in teaching three short stories: Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado,” which I use to address issues of bullying and homicidal behavior, Abe Kobo’s “Song of a Dead Girl,” which concerns exploitation
and slavery as well as forced prostitution, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which
allows my classes to discuss mental health and domestic abuse.
Biographical Data: Dr. Samantha Landau received her BA in Asian Studies from Cornell University, and
her MA and PhD in Comparative Culture from International Christian University. A large portion of
her PhD dissertation focused on Emily Dickinson; part of that has been published as an essay entitled
“Haunted Homes and Uncanny Spaces: The Gothic in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson.” She is currently
a full-time lecturer at Showa Women’s University in the Department of English Language and Communication, and a part-time lecturer at Tokyo Women’s Christian University. She teaches courses on
American literature and culture, comparative literature, New England studies, and creative writing. Her
current research interests include the image of the house in gothic literature, the works of Shirley Jackson, and poetry in American art song.
3C. How Japanese Students See Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982)
Presenter: Yuko Hori
Abstract: I would like to discuss Caryl Churchill’s Top Girls (1982) in terms of its importance in Britain at
the time it was written and its relevance to Japan in the present, especially to Japanese students. Top
Girls, which won the Obie Award for Playwriting in 1982 and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize in 1983,
was also nominated the Tony Award for the best performance in 2008. In the spring of 2011, it was
performed by the SIS company in Japan, using many popular actresses and attracting a large audience.
It can be said that Top Girls still appeals to contemporary people around the world even though it has
been over thirty years since it was premiered at Royal Court Theatre. This play explores various topics
such as social class, the relationships between career women and their family lives and contemporary
political issues in the United Kingdom such as Thatcherism. I will talk about the transfer of culture such
as British politics and social interactions and how my students interpret these things, and, for instance,
why they do not recognize Nijo as strange unlike many British audiences.
Biographical Data: Dr. Yuko Hori has been teaching at a number of Japanese universities for several
years, and is currently a part-time lecturer at Tsuru University. She obtained both her first MA in English
literature and her Ph.D. from Tokyo Woman’s Christian University, and has just received a second MA
in English literature from Royal Holloway, University of London. Her primary research interest is British
contemporary drama, with a focus on the work of Caryl Churchill. Dr. Hori has made a particular study
of how female subjectivity and culture can be represented in the output of contemporary playwrights,
and is presently focusing on this topic in her examination of post-millennium plays.
18
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 4 (11.30-12:50) Room B
4A. Is There a Teacher in This Class?
Presenter: Akiyoshi Suzuki
Abstract: The purpose of my presentation is to show pedagogy of literature in English with argument
of translatability and untranslatability, based on Zhang Longxi’s view of world literature and my theory
which I published entitled “How Should We Read Literature from a Certain Area from the Viewpoints of
Other Language-Speaking Areas?” “Intercultural Limits and Liminality,” the theme in 2016, is the matter of
translatability and untranslatability, which are major issues of world literature. Some thinkers emphasize
untranslatability. However, we cannot recognize untranslatability without comparison and also we cannot
compare anything without translatability. The problem in focus on untranslatability lies in argument for
difference on a more conceptual, philosophical, and emotional level. For instance, when we read a poem
about a beloved person’s death, it evokes sadness, not laughter. This is why literature transcends national
borders. On the other hand, some sensibility does not go beyond cultural borders because of transformed
style, local religions, and so on. We should read a literary text from our own nose, from cross-cultural and
multi-dimensional perspectives, and then fashion an overview of readings from around the world. In doing so, readers hold a global discussion to cross-culturally understand both literary texts and each other.
Gaps of styles between English and Japanese versions of a text can give student a good opportunity to
deeply understand English as well. I will tell several pedagogies suitable to students’ levels of English.
Biographical Data: Akiyoshi Suzuki, Ph.D, is professor in Department of Intercultural Studies at Nagasaki
University in Japan, where he teaches American literature from the standpoint of world literature. He
continued to serve in various positions, and now an editorial advisory board member of Japan Society
of Text Studies (Japan) and the special editor of Japan Issues at International Association for East-West
Studies (U.S.A.). He has published articles and books on American, Japanese and comparative literatures. His recent books are The Future of English in Asia: Perspectives on language and literature (Routledge
Studies in World Englishes) (co-authorship) (New York: Routledge, 2016) and East-West Studies of American
Literature as World Literature & Essays (Handa: Hitotsubu Shobou, 2014).
4B. Crossing Cultural Borders, Bringing Students Along
Presenter: Anna Husson Isozaki
Abstract: So much may seem out of reach to our learners at first – L2 literature, new cultures – but
bringing stories to students in multimodal, integrated and strategic ways can build bridges for them in
sometimes inspiring ways. Recent research is clarifying strategies which help reduce cognitive load and
help students take on a text, especially by integrating input and balancing skills. Choosing stories with
frameworks of characters and situations students can relate to in some crucial ways can then help provide the mental spaces for readers to note, actively question and discuss culture points they find. Ongoing projects with peer collaboration and multifaceted student responses will be introduced and shared,
and the instructor’s present coursework with novels, creative non-fiction and culture-challenging materials will be part of the case for the efficacy of stories in bridging learners’ paths to literacy, literature,
and to the wider world as well.
19
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
Biographical Data: Anna Husson Isozaki has been teaching EFL for twenty-some years and has loved to
read and share stories since hiding early ones under the desk at school. As a teacher she’s been concerned about the pleasure of reading slipping through too many fingers. Hoping to share stories helped
motivate an MA in adv. Japanese Studies and translation, an online journalism certificate and an MA in
TESOL. The latter, naturally, focused on paths opening (partly thanks to gains in psycholinguistics) to
building sustainable literacy in second and foreign languages.
4C. Experiencing Tumultuous Asia
Presenter: Lisa Yinghong Li
Abstract: This paper examines ways of using Asian memoirs in a university course that serves multiple
goals. I teach “Asian Memoir” at J. F. Oberlin University in Tokyo to foreign students on a studying abroad
program. The course uses memoirs from Japan, China, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Tibet that depict
ordinary people’s lives in tumultuous times of modern history. The open-ended modern memoir can be
a powerful medium bringing together the historical, political, social, cultural, philosophical and personal
aspects of history in a complex and sophisticated manner. This course gives modern Asia a tangible
reality and allows themes such as colonialism, imperialism, revolution and modernization to become
contextualized experiences with similarities and differences. These personal narratives enable an organic process for students to imagine an otherwise alien way of existence and encourage reflective,
non-linear, and even risk-taking thinking in reaching for meaningful analyses. Students can understand
the dynamics of Asian history, the multilayered geopolitical and social meanings through individual
voices that demand empathetic and intense responses. This course links a variety of academic disciplines including history, Asian studies, current affairs, international relationships, and gender studies. It
fosters a critical learning process that transcends time and location.
Biographical Data: Lisa Yinghong Li is an Associate Professor in the Institute for International Programs
at J. F. Oberlin University, Tokyo, Japan. She teaches courses on Japanese literature, cinema and Asian
culture. She was born in Beijing, China. Having studied and then taught English there, she left in 1988.
She received both her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States. Her research interests include issues
related to the effect of modernization and globalization on East Asian culture and society, as well as
expat Chinese fiction.
20
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
POSTGRADUATE SESSION B (11.30 – 12:50) Room C
Postgraduate Session B1.“I was born for a good tyrant!”: Boyishness in Robert
Louis Stevenson’s The Master of Ballantrae
Presenter: Masao Morishige
Abstract: James Durie, a picaresque protagonist of Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Master of Ballantrae
(1889), seems to do evil deeds at all times. Strange to say, however, he gets much more support from
others than Henry Durie, his good-natured younger brother, does throughout the story. In my presentation, I will analyze the reason why James is so popular in spite of his evil deeds, and prove that
his attractiveness is traced back to his boyishness. First, I note that James has adventures in various
places in the world: the Highlands, France, India, and America. As British colonialists, writers, and even
periodicals show in the turn of the century, the concept of adventurers was strongly associated with
boyhood. After referring to the historical context, I will make it clear that Stevenson thought of boys as
non-moralistic adventurers. Then, I will confirm the process of boyish James enchanting people around
him as if he were an adventure story itself.
Biographical Data: Masao Morishige studies in the graduate school of English literature at Keio University. After researching Japanese feudalism in Robert Louis Stevenson’s works, his recent interest has
moved to English reception of samurai at the turn of the century.
Postgraduate Session B2. Liminality in A. L. Lloyd’s Ballads, ‘Jack Orion’ and
‘Reynardine’
Presenter: Emi Hirose
Abstract: This paper examines A. L. Lloyd’s (1908-1982) recordings of two traditional ballads, ‘Jack Orion’
and ‘Reynardine,’ both of which featured in Lloyd’s LP album, First Person (1966). I argue that the process
of rewriting ballads represents a kind of liminality between the past and the present, between authorship and authenticity and between the voice of folk and the personal expressions. Lloyd attempted to
overcome these oppositions and create more emotional and appealing ballads. Lloyd was an English
folk song scholar, singer and music producer. He led the folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s along
with Ewan MacColl (1915-1989) and John Hasted (1921-2002). Lloyd was also the writer of Folk Song in
England (1967) a pioneering book that analysed folk songs from a Marxist point of view. In this paper,
I will focus on how Lloyd rewrote these songs in order to make them more poetically and aesthetically
attractive to an audience, without diminishing the essence of traditional ballads. I claim that a ballad is
not a single authoritative text, or form of historical documentation. It is rather a series of inter-textual
texts that requires collaborative engagement. Through this process of reworking, ballads are given a
new meaning and role, without losing contact with the past.
Biographical Data: Emi Hirose is studying in the English Department at Japan Women’s University. Her
research interests are ballad studies and the cultural history of the folk song revival movement in the
Victorian/ Edwardian period and the post war period. 21
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
Postgraduate Session B3. Criticism of True Womanhood in ‘Incidents in the Life
of a Slave Girl’
Presenter: Hikaru Ishiyama
Abstract: Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl (1861) written by Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897), an ex-slave
woman, has attracted Feminist critics since it was validated by Jean Fagan Yellin in 1987. The reason
of its attraction is not only the historical background, one of the earliest autobiographies published by
ex-slave women, but also its literary impact coming from her sensationalistic sexual confession. In this
presentation, however, focusing on Jacobs’ political criticism, I will demonstrate how she criticizes Cult
of True Womanhood in the text, a gender ideology prevailing in 19th century America. While utilizing
literary strategies such as an autobiographic style and the form of a sentimental novel mostly used by
white female writers at that time, Jacobs points out the limitation of the ideology through depicting her
dear grandmother’s inability to protect her children from slavery. This autobiography is the political
criticism by “the weakest being in a society” who is marginalized in terms of race, and also gender.
Biographical Data: Hikaru Ishiyama is a postgraduate student of American Literature at Sophia University. Her academic interest is in women’s autobiographical novels at the beginning of the 19th Century.
And then, during lunchtime, it is our pleasure to bring you…
Baroque Chamber Music of England
Music by: Handel, Barsanti, Croft [and others]
Barnaby Ralph
Baroque Recorder
Ayako Otomo
Harpsichord
13:10 p.m. January 22nd
Room 23100
Tokyo Woman’s Christian University
22
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 5 (14:10-15:30) Room A
5A. In the Dead Core of Positivist Historicism: History or Negativity in Literature,
Psychoanalysis, and the Humanities
Presenter: Fuhito Endo
Abstract: After the decisive impacts on the humanities made by psychoanalytically-oriented deconstructionists such as Shoshana Felman or Barbara Johnson, the disciplinary distinction between literature and psychoanalysis lost almost all meanings. Foregrounded through their deconstruction is
a unique temporality which resists chronological narrative time, a discursive product of 19th century
capitalist belief in ‘progress’ or ‘growth.’ Hence the critical significance of a set of a-temporal or nonprogressive temporalities: repetition, deferred-ness, or trauma. Since the institutionalization of the
New Historicism in the 1990s, however, positivist historicism has become increasingly hegemonic in
the humanities, thus making us oblivious of Felman’s or Johnson’s brilliant critique of bourgeois historicism. This paper reevaluates their criticism and redefines the “History” as something radically negative
in the dead core of positivist history. By implication, this approach to history is an intervention in the
humanities in the age of neo-liberalist or neo-social-Darwinist obsessions with ‘growth,’ progression,’
and ‘survival.’ (148 words)
Biographical Data: Fuhito Endo is a professor of English at Seikei University Tokyo. His research interests have recently focussed on the historiography of British psychoanalysis between the wars, the
re-historicisation of British modernist literature from the viewpoint of ‘affect,’ and the transpacific geographical contexts of the aesthetics of postwar Japanese conservatism. His recent publications in English include: (the titles of articles) ‘A Reading of Freud through Williams: An Actual/Affectual Residual and
the Long Revolution,’ ‘The Death Drive of Revolution/Counter-Revolution,’ and ‘Singular Universality: D.
H. Lawrence and Marxism.’ He was a visiting professor at University College London from 2012 to 2013.
5B. Re-Orienting Romanticism: the Impact of Revised Periodisation on Contemporary Literary Study
Presenter: Steve Clark
Abstract: This paper wishes to explore the implications for the Romantic period of the ‘re-orient’ thesis,
which regards European ascendency as a comparatively brief interlude in what remains over the long
term an Asian-dominated world order. (This was introduced by Frank in 1998, but has been developed
in workover the past two decades by Markley, Avaramudan, Kitson, Gottleib and others) The most obvious parameters would be 1793 (Macartney Embassy) to 1839-42 (first Opium War) which perhaps
changes little from the traditional 1789 (Fall of Bastille) to 1832 (Reform Act, though this is itself an
arbitrary choice compared to 1837 (coronation of Victoria) or 1848 (European Revolutions). However
extension to a later date such as 1912 (close of Qing dynasty; end of Meiji era) has considerable advantages, allowing consideration of deferred reception of Romanticism in Japan, and its relation to the
reciprocal emergence of Japanese and decline of Chinese spheres of influence during the later 19th
century. By the same logic, on an Asian-based chronology, an earlier marker might be preferred such
23
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
as 1644 (victory of Manchus in China; imposition of sakoku regime in Japan), permitting attention to an
era in which European powers competed as client states for economic favours rather than engaging in
aggressive incursion, and engagement with recent attempts to define a distinctive Enlightenment mode
of Orientalism . It will argue that such an extension of temporal boundaries enables a move away from
the essentialist ideal of a national literary canon to a model privileging texts and genres engaged in
cross-cultural encounter , and so more responsive to recent debate on the possibility and conditions of
a world literature defined in terms of the ethics of translation. The paper will conclude by reflecting on
the possible impact of such large-scale revision of period demarcations on specific issues of pedagogic
theory and practice.
Biographical Data: Steve Clark is Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology,
University of Tokyo. Previous publications range from William Blake and Romantic Poetry to the philosophy of Paul Ricoeur. His most recent publication is British Romanticism in European Perspective:
Into the Eurozone, co-edited with Tristanne Connolly (2015), and he is currently working on the impact
of Romanticism in Asia. He also co-authored, with Masashi Suzuki, ‘Basic English Revisited: I.A. Richards Legacy in the Japanese Classroom’ (Lit Matters 2014), and helped to organise the Emerging Connections Graduate Workshop at the Romantic Connections Conference at the University of Tokyo (2014).
5C. Liminality Across The Disciplines; A History of Language Communication
Skills in Higher Education
Presenter: Ayako Otomo
Abstract: Japanese university education requires a comprehension of language and of communication
skills across disciplines – especially in the Humanities – which appear to be rooted in a Western learning style. This concept has a long history, having being developed in the Classical age and systematized
from the birth of the University system in the Anglo European world from the Medieval period. The
trivium of grammar, logic and rhetoric was centralised in curriculums for centuries. The value of language skill, upon which the trivium rested, was recognized by those intellectuals who contributed to the
development of Western thought at this time. Furthermore, the methodology of an educational style
with foundations in rhetoric underpinned different disciplines such as sciences, humanities and even
the visual performing arts through the Medieval and Early Modern period. This paper traces the history
of the emphasis on the acquisition of language skill from the time of the birth of the university in the
European educational system. The liminality of the process of defining disciplines will be highlighted.
The goal of this discussion is to attempt to contextualize and argue for the indispensability of language
skill in modern Liberal Arts education, particularly in Japan, by examining historical evidence of which
both teachers and students can be aware when facing everyday learning and teaching challenges.
Biographical Data: Ayako Otomo is currently completing her Doctor of Philosophy at the University of
Otago, New Zealand. Her research is interdisciplinary and her interests span several disciplines and
methodology. Her dissertation centres on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century culture in France and
England and its representation through keyboard music. She has also presented widely at conferences
internationally, including giving numerous papers in the US, Australia, Japan and New Zealand at conferences on topics as diverse as Early Modern Studies, Musicology and Literary Romanticism. She is a
graduate of the Queensland Conservatorium (BMus Hons) and the University of Queensland (MPhil),
and also active as a concert harpsichordist.
24
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 6 (14:10-15:30) Room B
6A. Recast, Recycle, Remix: Multiliteracy Approaches to Cultural Understanding
Presenter: Darren Elliott
Abstract: The obstacles to the teaching of literature in a foreign language are many. Learners can struggle
with lexical and grammatical complexity, idiomatic or metaphorical expressions, and contextual misunderstandings. These obstacles should not prevent teachers from introducing literature, however. This presenter
suggests a three stage approach to literature in language classes. In the first stage, the teacher introduces the
source material by recasting it via its adaptations (such as comic books, graded readers, television, radio or cinema versions). In the second stage, the learners recycle cultural and linguistic elements to demonstrate their
understanding of the literature. Finally, the learners respond to the piece by remixing it and creating a version
of their own, in relation to their own cultural context. By allowing the learners to understand foreign language
literature on their own terms, we can provide the liminal space for intercultural development.
Biographical Data: Darren Elliott (DELTA, MA ELT) is originally from the UK and has been teaching in Japan
since 1999. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Foreign Studies at Sugiyama Jogakuen University.
His research interests include learner autonomy, technology in language learning and teacher development.
He is currently researching the connection between learners’ metaphors for learning and their propensity
for autonomous learning, and student video production and identity. [email protected]
6B. Transnational Screenplays as Literary Texts for Intercultural Awareness
Presenter: Alexander McAulay
Abstract: Transnational screenplays in the context of Japan may be defined as Japanese-language
screenplays written by non-Japanese screenwriters. Liberlit 2016 asks how students can cross cultural
borders to become more intercultural. An engagement with transnational screenplays as liminal texts,
interrogating national cinema discourses, offers one possible answer. For Japanese cinema, globalization brings a new strand of Western cinematic representation of Japan: Japanese-language film production of scripts written by non-Japanese. Virtually unknown in the 20th century, transnational screenplays have emerged in Japan in the early 21st century, for example Like Someone in Love (2012, Abbas
Kiarostami), Tokyo Sonata (2008, Max Mannix), Merde/Tokyo! (2008, Leos Carax), Best Wishes for Tomorrow, (2007, Roger Pulvers), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006, Paul Haggis), Babel (2006, Guillermo Arriaga),
and Firefly Dreams (2001, John Williams). In engaging with these texts, students develop intercultural
sensibilities through consideration of questions such as, “What does ‘a Japanese film’ mean when the
screenwriter is not Japanese?” “Do financiers, collaborators and audiences react differently to transnational screenplays?” “How exactly do non-Japanese writers engage with cultural considerations when
writing Japanese scripts?” The presenter, a screenwriter writing for Japanese cinema, will outline how he
uses transnational screenplays with Japanese university students to develop intercultural awareness.
Biographical Data: Alec McAulay is a professor in the Graduate School of International Social Sciences at
Yokohama National University. An award-winning filmmaker, his research interests include the role of transnational screenplays in Japanese cinema. Recent publications include ‘Based on a True Story: Negotiating
Collaboration, Compromise and Authorship in the Script Development Process,’ a chapter in Screenwriters
and Screenwriting: Putting Practice into Context (2014), edited by Craig Batty and published by Palgrave.
25
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
6C. The Limits of Humanity: Identity and Liminality in Never Let Me Go (2005 and
2010)
Presenter: Alex Watson
Abstract: This paper considers the 2005 Kazuo Ishiguro novel Never Let Me Go and its 2010 cinematic
adaption as pedagogic tools in discussions of ‘liminality’ and ‘limits’ in the twenty-first century Japanese
university. Both the book and the film present the fictional childhood, adolescence and early adulthood
of three human clones―Kathy H, Tommy D and Ruth C―who live in an alternative version of latetwentieth-century England in which they are raised to provide organs to replace those of sick or dying
non-clones. As I will show, examining Never Let Me Go enables participants to reflect critically on the
complex role of education systems in sustaining oppressive social systems. The clones’ experiences at
Hailsham school lead them to internalize their own marginalization and construct liminal identities as
human beings denied human status; ‘copies’ not ‘originals’ (a logic arguably mirrored by critical analyses prioritizing book over film). Nonetheless the clones’ own failure to look beyond themselves and
their own kind confronts us with uncomfortable questions about the relationship between identity and
exclusion. In so doing, I demonstrate that Never Let Me Go allows us to explore the limits of ‘humanity’
according to the latter term’s three main meanings: the human species; kindness; and disciplines such
as art, literature and philosophy.
Biographical Data: Alex Watson is assistant professor of English at Japan Women’s University, Tokyo. He
is the author of Romantic Marginality: Nation and Empire on the Borders of the Page (Pickering and Chatto,
2012). More recently, he has authored articles on paratexts in travel writing, Constantin de Volney, J. G.
Ballard, Roland Barthes, Robert Southey and John Gibson Lockhart and co-edited an issue of POETICA
(‘Romantic Connections’, Yushodo Press, Tokyo, 2015). Currently, he is co-editing (with Laurence Williams, University of Tokyo) a volume of scholarly essays entitled British Romanticism in Asia (prospectively for Palgrave) and writing an advanced textbook for Asian students on British cinema, a monograph on
the use of the ruin motif in nineteenth-century British travel writing and book chapters on Rabindranath
Tagore, Lafcadio Hearn, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.
26
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
POSTGRADUATE SESSION C (14:10-15:30) Room C
Postgraduate Session C1. Temporal/Geographical Individuality and Universality
in Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”
Presenter: Ai Watanabe
Abstract: “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place,” compiled in Winner Takes Nothing (1933) has been evaluated as
one of the greatest short stories of Ernest Hemingway. However, while critics like Steve K. Hoffman give
importance to its nihilistic value shared among the people after World War l, most of the critics have
focused on the inconsistency of the dialogue between the two waiters in the story. This story takes
place in Spain and it was written in 1932, just one year after Spain became Republic, and Hemingway
was interested in the political and social condition in Spain. In light of these facts, it is important to put
this story in the Spanish context to understand it deeply. Also, its unpublished manuscript shows a very
interesting information; Hemingway originally tried to set this story in Zaragoza although he deleted the
word later. In the presentation, I’d like to talk about the story’s Spanish context and the class conflicts
implied in the story and also consider Hemingway’s literally technique, so-called Iceberg Theory, by focusing on the fact Hemingway deleted the expression “In Zaragoza.”
Biographical Data: Ai Watanabe is a Ph.D student at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University. Her main interest is in human relations and community in Modern American Literature, especially in the work of
Ernest Hemingway. Postgraduate Session C2. The Wolf on Display in Hanoverian Little Red Riding
Hoods
Presenter: Misako Takahashi
Abstract: Wolves have been treated as typical villains in fairy tales for centuries. One of the most prevalent among such stories is Little Red Riding Hood, both of whose protagonist and antagonist have mesmerized English readers ever since the publication of the first English translation in 1729. The Hanoverians were especially attracted to the tale, and were tempted to produce numerous retellings; imagination
ran wild. When the age of Little Red Riding Hood thus flourished, wild wolves had been extinct for more
than two hundred years in the area. The figure of the animal villain, therefore, might have been open to
interpretation and reproduction, its representation possibly not limited to that of a rapist or a lunatic.
Considering the wide interest in visuality in the era, this study focuses on visual aspects of the Wolf to
propose further interpretations of Little Red Riding Hood as well as functions of the Wolf in Hanoverian
England.
Biographical Data: Misako Takahashi is an MA student in English Literature at the University of the Sacred Heart. Her research topics include the imagery of nature in children’s literature and natural history.
She is also interested in creative writing.
27
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
Postgraduate Session C3. ‘Atalanta and Victorian Feminist Propaganda’
Presenter: Yukiko Muta
Abstract: My presentation will focus on the propaganda of the Victorian women’s movement in the
magazine Atalanta, launched for young, wealthy middle class women in 1887 by feminist editor L. T.
Meade. While furthering the cause of the women’s movement, it was also an important duty of feminists to educate the younger generation and widely diffuse their ideas. By examining the magazine, the
feminists’ strategies of promotion can be found. Analysis shows that they contrived to activate the debates around women’s social position by developing and reconstructing the interpretation of women’s
ideal figures. In this presentation, I will analyse how Atalanta developed strategies to introduce readers
to a competitive society through essays on education and professionalisation. Finally, it will show how
Atalanta imaged women in a new way without totally abandoning conservative ideas, incorporating the
ideas of the younger generation.
Biographical Data: Yukiko Muta is a Ph.D student in English Studies at Waseda University. She has finished a master’s degree in Victorian culture and history in the UK, and is now working on Victorian periodicals for women.
28
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 7 (15:40-17:00) Room A
7A. A Practical Report on “Reading Circles”: An Attempt to Incorporate Literature
in English Classes at Universities
Presenter: Kumiko Hoshi
Abstract: In this presentation, I will give a practical report on “reading circles,” or “literature circles”
with a greater focus on an element of literature, as an attempt to incorporate literature in mandatory
(compulsory) English classes at universities. “Reading circles” is a collaborative and student-centered
reading strategy. Students break into groups of 3 or 4 members, and read an assigned literary text in
six lessons. In each lesson, the members bear different roles such as plot summarizer, character analyzer, researcher (or connector), and discussion director, and share what they have learned and discuss
what they have found interesting or important in the text. When the students read through the text,
they make group presentations in English on the text they read. Through these activities, the students
are expected to improve their English language skills, develop their critical and creative thinking, and
enhance their knowledge about world affairs represented in the literary texts. In this presentation, I
will explain the theory of “reading circles” and its detailed procedure, and then provide some practical
examples at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University (TWCU). Finally, I will present my way of adapting this
approach to literature courses at Shinshu University.
Biographical Data: Kumiko Hoshi, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Arts in Shinshu University, Nagano, is teaching British and American literature in English. She received her PhD from Tokyo Woman’s
Christian University in 2009. Her main academic interests are genre-crossing attempts of the modernist
movement, on which she has published several essays, including “Modernism’s Fourth Dimension in
Aaron’s Rod: Einstein, Picasso, and Lawrence” in Windows to the Sun: D. H. Lawrence’s “Thought-Adventures”
(2009). As for English education, Hoshi has had broad experience as the former Adjunct Lecturer at Rikkyo University and a part-time instructor at Tokyo Woman’s Christian University and Keio University.
7B. L2 Literature Circles as Liminal Rite of Separation
Presenter: Paul Sevigny
Abstract: Van Gennep’s model of cultural Rites of Passage (1960) provides a basis for exploring ways that
Literature Circles (LCs) might concretize the vision of international mutual understanding in Japanese
university school culture. More specifically, three examples of how LCs might function like a Rite of
Separation are offered. First, for Japanese EFL students, engaging in LCs means stepping from receptive
comfort zones into a liminal space where one’s reading comprehension is measured through speaking.
Second, an advanced English Medium of Instruction (EMI) literature course means leaving many domestic
Japanese learners of English behind and engaging with international students of English (cf. Coleman,
2013). Third, advanced students preparing for study abroad benefit from a course in which phases of
the foreign sojourn form a framework for selecting short stories (Lewis & Jungman, 1986). Mini-lectures
on stylistic elements and LCs are the primary driver for building their literary analytic skills. The course
helps students develop self confidence in discussing fiction stories, characters and their motivations,
and it allows them to see examples of characters in complex multicultural situations coping well (and
29
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
not so well) in their intercultural journeys, in addition to appreciating many elements of literature.
Biographical Data: Paul Sevigny is a Tenured Senior Lecturer at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University.
I teach pre-intermediate and advanced English. My advanced students read Achebe, Adichie,
Crane, Hemingway, Lahiri, Mueenuddin, Murakami, and Tawada. They write a short story with an
accompanying meta-analysis that explains their stylistic choices. I collect short story authors and titles
that reflect sojourning themes. Please send ideas my way: [email protected].
7C. Questioning as the Center of Literature Study
Presenter: Michael Pronko
Abstract: This presentation will argue for putting questions at the center of literature study. Questions
motivate students to read more deeply and attentively and to engage in productive discussions with active
responses. All too often, literature study simply retraces the teacher’s reading and understanding of the
text; that is, it remains mired in unquestioning approaches. A greater inclusion of questioning activities
moves literary study away from superficiality and teacher-centeredness towards helping students find
their own ways into texts. Since questioning is at the heart of creating literature, it should also be at
the heart of studying literature. A comprehensive use of questions enhances student autonomy, ups
the level of critical thinking, and establishes a questioning mindset. No less important are the ways
questions bridge cultural gaps and the chasm between literature and life. This presentation will offer
specific ways of getting students to write, discuss, present and think questions. Student examples of
questions, ways of organizing questions and methods for conducting question-asking and answering
activities will be discussed for the ways they limber up and strengthen the study of literature.
Biographical Data: I am a professor at Meiji Gakuin University. I teach courses in American novels and
short stories, as well as American film, art and music, with a special emphasis on film adaptations. My
primary research areas are film adaptations, contemporary novels and jazz, as well as literary and film
theory. I also write about the Tokyo jazz scene for my own website, Jazz in Japan, and have published
three collections of essays on life in Tokyo. 30
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
PANEL 8 (15:40-17:00) Room B
8A. Reading Süskind: the Hierarchy of Sense
Presenter: Barnaby Ralph & Iori Ohashi
Abstract: Patrick Süskind’s 1985 novel Perfume is a remarkable work for a multiplicity of reasons.
A literary sensation, it subverts the historical novel genre, and offers a protagonist with whom the
reader is unlikely to sympathize, yet still manages to engage their fascination despite the almost
anti-psychological depiction of its central character. Where it is offers the most unusual perspective,
however, is in its refocusing of the hierarchy of sense. To read this novel is to recalibrate one’s idea of
experience, and, in order to engage fully with the narrative, one must consider smell as a primary force
of perception, placing it above sight, touch or sound. The idea of a hierarchy of sense goes back at least
as far as Plato’s Timeaus, and the predominant ocularcentrism of today is a recurring motif in Western
thought. The presenters shall discuss the nature of Süskind’s novel itself, then turn to an exploration of
preconceptions of sense ordering, before considering issues of liminality with particular reference to
reception and pedagogy.
Biographical Data: Dr. Barnaby Ralph is an Associate Professor in the Department of English and
American Literature at Seikei University, Tokyo, Japan. He holds degrees in literature, legal studies,
musicology, performance and applied linguistics. His PhD dissertation examined the idea of aesthetic
duality in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century England. He has presented internationally on a broad
range of academic topics and his current research interests range from the interaction of eighteenthcentury rhetorical metalanguages with the arts through to critical theory, particularly involved with
modern cultural authenticity and the progress of the sign in Baudrillardian terms. He also studied music
in Vienna and has been active as a performing musician for many years, playing numerous concerts and
appearing on CD, television and radio. Biographical Data: Iori Ohashi is an undergraduate student in the Department of English and American
literature at Seikei University, Tokyo, Japan. He was previously in the Economics and Management
Department, but changed courses in 2015 and is currently in the 2nd-year seminar of Professor Barnaby
Ralph. He spent a decade of his childhood in Australia and Singapore. He scored 91 on the TOEFL ibt
test in his first year of university studies. He also practices two types of tea ceremony; Senchadou
ShukenRyu and Omote-Senke, and is a licensed teacher of Senchadou.
8B. Translations: From Word to Word, or to Cultural Meaning
Presenter: Eucharia Donnery
Abstract: To literally translate words is anathema in the French language, where the word “transduction”
is used to incorporate the changing of words and meaning from one language to another. The Irish
playwright Brian Friel’s, Translations, is set at a crucial point of history, when England sought to mentally
colonize Ireland through its campaign to remap historical Irish place names into English in the 19th century.
In the world of the play, the characters speak in English, although the audience must suspend disbelief in
31
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
order to pretend that the Irish characters are speaking in Irish. There are a number of comical instances
of miscommunication, particularly within the blossoming romance between the English officer Yolland
and local Irish peasant-girl Maire. He sees Ireland as an idyllic land and wishes to imbue his very soul in
it. She, on the other hand, sees Yolland as a means of escape from the claustrophobia of life in Ireland.
The climax of the story is a physical murder, but bubbling underneath throughout is the symbolic murder
of the Irish language through its Anglicization devoid of culture, history or tradition. This play resonates
with Japanese English literature university students as the themes of love and death are universal to all,
and students tend to join forces with the Irish characters in their attitudes towards the English language
through their personal experiences of the imperial nature of English that lingers in the world of EFL.
Biographical Data: Eucharia Donnery currently works as a computer-assisted language learning (CALL)
and sociology lecturer in the Department of Applied Computer Sciences, Shonan Institute of Technology,
Kanagawa. She completed her doctoral studies at University College Cork, Ireland in June 2013. This
research was focused on how the use of process drama projects could help students move study
for English to learning through English and simultaneously developing intercultural communicative
competence. She applies drama-based and Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) pedagogy to
help learners improve their foreign language skills, as well as to understand theories of SLA.
8C. Fusion of Horizons: Teaching the Bible in Japan
Presenter: Thomas Dabbs
Abstract: This talk will draw from Hans-Georg Gadamer’s concept that common ground can be developed
between two distinctly different cultural perspectives through a process he calls fusion of horizons. The
horizons or cultural borders to fuse or cross are extremely difficult to negotiate in the effort to teach
the Bible to Japanese students. Japanese college students are usually unfamiliar with biblical stories and
themes, and the Bible is enormous and has been encrusted with multifarious religious interpretations
throughout its long history. The whole Bible cannot be taught in one or two semesters, so the teacher
must look for ways to manage a beastly amount of difficult material with too little time. This effort can
lead to flawed instructional strategies, often comic in that the salient biblical point of human imperfection
is confirmed by the instructor’s own failures. But through an imperfect system devoted to coverage and
to meaningful summary, much ground can be gained for Japanese students, helping to fuse their own
cultural understanding with what is commonly shared culture knowledge about the Bible in the West.
This talk will point to the scalable benefits of learning more about the stories and themes in the Bible
when it comes to understanding biblical allusions in so many Western literary (and non-literary) texts.
The teaching strategies covered in the talk, some that have failed, others that have worked fairly well,
will seek to contribute to the conversation concerning how other teachers manage large and difficult
literary texts in the Japanese classroom.
Biographical Data: Thomas Dabbs is a professor in the Department of English and American Literature
at Aoyama Gakuin University, where he has taught Shakespeare and the English Bible since 2003.
Prior to this position Dabbs taught at Hiroshima University. Dabbs is the author of Reforming Marlowe:
the Nineteenth-Century Canonization of a Renaissance Dramatist, and Genesis in Japan: The Bible beyond
Christianity. Recent articles have tracked the influence of Paul’s Cross Churchyard on the rise of
Shakespearean drama during the 16th century. Much of his research explores the history and various
implementations of humanities pedagogy in the West and in Japan.
32
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
POSTGRADUATE SESSION D (15:40 -17:00) Room C
Postgraduate Session D. Panel Symposium on Academic Career Development
Presenters: Noriyuki Harada, Alex Watson, Steve Clark, Laurence Williams, Masahiko Abe and more.
Abstract: In this symposium a panel of professors including Noriyuki Harada, Alex Watson, Steve Clarke,
Laurence Williams, Masahiko Abe and other invited guests will discuss postgraduate career development
in Japan and abroad. Each of the participants will first introduce how they began their own careers in
academic research before giving their advice and opinions regarding postgraduate career development.
Following a chaired discussion on the specific efficacy of academic pathways in Japanese and worldwide
contexts participants will answer questions from the audience.
33
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
And finally, we are delighted to present…
THE PLENARY TALK FROM OUR INVITED GUEST SPEAKER
TAKAYUKI TATSUMI
(Keio University, Tokyo)
(17:10-18:10, Room B)
THE BARREN LAND OF FIGURES: THE INTELLECTUAL LIMITS AND
LIMINALITY OF AUERBACH, DE MAN AND MIZUMURA
Abstract: Paul de Man’s technical terms sound esoteric. His homeland of literature is the discipline of
rhetoric constructed by Aristotle but dismissed in the wake of the English Civil War. As he demonstrates
in “The Resistance to Theory” (1983), one of the deconstructionist purposes is not necessarily explore
the cutting edge of literary criticism but recover and vindicate the classic field of rhetoric.
My theory is that de Man must have been familiar with the project of resurrecting rhetoric through
the works of Erich Auerbach. Then,how did de Man deconstruct Auerbach? How did his disciple Minae
Mizumura deconstruct de Man in the novels she has published in Japanese since the 1990s? And how
will de Man studies contribute to future literary and cultural scholarship? I will grapple with these
problems in this lecture.
Biographical Data: Takayuki Tatsumi, Professor of American Literature and Critical Theory at Keio
University (Tokyo, Japan), received a PhD from Cornell University in 1987. He is president of the American
Literary Society of Japan (2014-) and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Transnational
American Studies (http://escholarship.org/uc/acgcc_jtas). His major books are: Cyberpunk America
(1988), the winner of the American Studies Book Prize; New Americanist Poetics (1995), winner of the
Yukichi Fukuzawa Award, and Full Metal Apache: Transactions between Cyberpunk Japan and Avant-Pop
America (2006, 2010 IAFA Distinguished Scholarship Award). He has also published a variety of essays
such as: “Literary History on the Road: Transatlantic Crossings and Transpacific Crossovers” (PMLA
119.1[January 2004]);”Race and Black Humor: from a Planetary Perspective” (Journal of the Fantastic in
the Arts 21.3 [2010]); “Planet of the Frogs: Thoreau, Anderson and Murakami” (Narrative 21.3[October
2013]). Professor Tatsumi will deliver his plenary paper entitled “The Barren Land of Figures: the
Intellectual Limits and Liminality of Auerbach, de Man and Mizumura” at Liberlit 2016.
34
LIBERLIT 7:
Intercultural Limits
and Liminality
Monday 22 February 2016:
Attendee Pack
POST-CONFERENCE PARTY:
TWCU CONFERENCE BUFFET AND DRINKS RECEPTION
Time: 18:30 – 20:30
Venue: Tokyo Woman’s Christian University Dosokaikan
Admission:
¥3,000
¥1,000 for Students
35