This collection focuses on metaphorical as well as temporal and physical border-crossing in writing from and about Japan.
With a strong consciousness of gender and socio-historic contexts, contributors to the book adopt an intercultural and interdisciplinary approach to examine the writing of authors whose works break free from the confines of hegemonic Japanese literary endeavour. By demonstrating how the texts analysed step outside the space of -Japan-, they accordingly foreground the volatility of textual expression related to that space. The authors discussed include Takahashi Mutsuo and Nagai Kafu, both of whom take literary inspiration from geographical sites outside Japan. Several chapters examine the work of exemplary border-crossing poet, novelist and essayist, Ito Hiromi. There are discussions of the work of Tawada Yoko whose ability to publish in German and Japanese marks her also as a representative writer of border-crossing texts. Two chapters address works by Mur
