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Podcast: New Books in Literary Studies
Episode: Pedro Thiago Ramos Bassoe, "Supernatural Japan: Izumi Kyoka and the Global Fantastic" (U Michigan Press, 2026)
Description: Supernatural Japan: Izumi Kyoka and the Global Fantastic (U Michigan Press, 2026)examines the role of Japanese writer Izumi Kyōka (1873–1939) in the formation of modern literature of the fantastic in Japan as a global literary genre. Kyōka wrote some of the most famous stories of ghosts, monsters, and the supernatural in modern Japanese literature, including The Holy Man of Mt. Kōya, The Grass Labyrinth, and The Castle Tower. Despite the clearly modernist elements and global influences of Kyōka’s fiction, his work has often been characterized as relying on traditional Japanese genres as inspiration for its themes and lite...