![]() | Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowing and Japanese Crime Literature, 1868–1937 Subjects: Detective and mystery stories Japanese -- History and criticism; Japanese fiction -- 19th century -- History and criticism; Japanese fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Japanese fiction -- Western influences; This engaging study of the detective story's arrival in Japan--and of the broader cross-cultural borrowing that accompanied it--argues for a reassessment of existing models of literary influence between "unequal" cultures. Because the detective story had no pre-existing native equivalent in Japan, the genre's formulaic structure acted as a distinctive cultural marker, making plain the process of its incorporation into late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Japanese letters. Mark Silver tells the story of Japan's adoption of this new Western literary form at a time when the nation was also remaking itself in the image of the Western powers. His account calls into question conventional notions of cultural domination and resistance, demonstrating the variety of possible modes for cultural borrowing, the surprising vagaries of intercultural transfer, and the power of the local contexts in which "imitation" occurs. |
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