New Books from Japan #8: "The Publishing Empire at War: A Cultural History of Defiance"

Presenter: 高榮蘭 (Ko Youngran, Nihon University)

Discussant: Nayoung Aimee Kwon (Duke University)

The publishing industry of Imperial Japan actively sought to include the peoples of the colonies as readers, regardless of their legal status. For Koreans, Japanese was a language of oppression, but also a language for learning about modes of resistance, and a language for entertainment. This book examines a variety of banned works to understand what kind of ideas and cultures of resistance were fostered across the Japanese empire in magazines such as "Senki" and "King," and via the writings of Marx, Lenin, Kaneko Fumiko, Hino Ashihei, Hayashi Fumiko, and others.

帝国日本の出版市場は合法／非合法を問わず、植民地の人々を積極的に読者として包摂しようとした。朝鮮人にとって日本語は抑圧する言語であり、抵抗の思想を学ぶための言語であり、娯楽のための言語でもあった。『戦旗』や『キング』、マルクスやレーニン、金子文子や火野葦平、林芙美子らの思考や文学が、発禁本とともに帝国の支配圏でいかなる思想や文化を醸成したのか、多彩な作品から読み解く。