Series and materials of the “Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar”, Volume 109

The book “Fantastic from Japan. An excursion into Japan´s ‘Otherworlds’” emerged from a conference that was organized by the Japanese Studies Department from the Goethe-University Frankfurt in cooperation with the “Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar” (Fantastic Library Wetzlar) in September 2010. Eleven articles deal with the Japanese fantastic in its different varieties: with a focus on different historical stages and traditional genres as well as on modern versions of the Fantastic, for example Science Fiction and Fantasy or demons and horror manga. Premodern examples derive from the comprehensive stock of Japanese mythology and from the Nô theatre.

An introduction and a glossary as well as fifteen illustrations complete the anthology. The articles deal with Ôe Kenzaburôs astonishing trial in the field of science fiction, with the tightly arranged mythological motifs of the famous contemporary Japanese author Ôba Minako, with ethnic and fantasy themes in recent texts from Okinawa and the influence of the fantasy genre to the Japanese light novel boom. On the example of Uehashi Naoko the fantasy in the Japanese children's literature is examined.

The manga articles discuss the comics "Inu Yasha" (Rumiko Takahashi) and "Parasyte" (Hitoshi Iwaaki). All essays provide the reader with important keywords for the discussion of trends in Japan and comprehensive secondary literature that animates own research. In the glossary you can find comments to relevant terms like Ikai ("Another World"), to concepts of fantasy and to the genre research in Japan.

The book is available at: Phantastische Bibliothek Wetzlar, Turmstraße 20, 35578 Wetzlar
Phone: 0049-(0)6441-4001-0; eMail: mail@phantastik.eu