Literature among the Ruins, 1945–1955: Postwar Japanese Literary Criticism (New Studies in Modern Japan)

In the wake of the disaster of 1945—as Japan was forced to remake itself from “empire” to “nation” in the face of an uncertain global situation—literature and literary criticism emerged as highly contested sites. Today, this remarkable period holds rich potential for opening new dialogue between scholars in Japan and North America as we rethink the historical and contemporary significance of such ongoing questions as the meaning of the American occupation both inside and outside of Japan, the shifting semiotics of “literature” and “politics,” and the origins of what would become crucial ideological weapons of the cultural Cold War. The volume consists of three interrelated sections: “Foregrounding the Cold War,” “Structures of Concealment: ‘Cultural Anxieties,’” and “Continuity and Discontinuity: Subjective Rupture and Dislocation.” One way or another, the essays address the process through which new “Japan” was created in the postwar present, which signified an attempt to criticize and reevaluate the past. Examining postwar discourse from various angles, the essays highlight the manner in which anxieties of the future were projected onto the construction of the past, which manifest in varying disavowals and structures of concealment. Contributors: Atsuko Ueda & Michael K. Bourdaghs & Richi Sakakibara & Hirokazu Toeda & James Dorsey & Ko Youngran & Seiji M. Lippit & Ann Sherif & Doug Slaymaker Making Learning Job-Embedded: Cases from the Field of Instructional Leadership is a book for sitting principals, aspiring principals, and teacher leaders. This edited volume includes studies that describe and detail findings from dissertation research conducted by scholar-practitioners in pre K-12 schools. These studies examined job-embedded professional learning--how teachers learned from their work, how they grew in their understandings of their work with students, and how they could learn from their interactions with others. Each chapter examines very specific aspects of professional learning that school leaders need to have understanding about to be able to create systems that support teachers in the work they do to teach students, interact with colleagues, participate in team meetings, and other aspects that constitute the work of being a teacher. Conclusions and recommendations are offered for school leaders to support an environment and culture that embraces job-embedded learning as an integral part of the school's foundation for building capacity. The messages across the chapters point to the primacy of teacher engagement and the value of job-embedded learning Cover Half Title Series Page Title Copyright Contents Acknowledgments Introduction PART I: FOREGROUNDING THE COLD WAR 1 Early Freeze Warning 2 The Korean War and Disputed Memories 3 Politics and Culture of Fascism PART II: STRUCTURES OF CONCEALMENT: CULTURAL ANXIETIES 4 Cultural Resentment and Valorization in Postwar Japanese Literary Criticism 5 Small Hopes and a Terror 6 Language and the People: PART III: CONTINUITY AND DISCONTINUITY: SUBJECTIVE RUPTURE AND DISLOCATION 7 Temporalities of Ruin 8 Literature at War’s End 9 From the God of Literature to War Criminal Index About the Contributors This collection examines literary criticism in postwar Japan. The contributors analyze the debates that occurred among Japanese intellectuals and highlight the various ideological forces that shaped the country's postwar trajectory. This book makes unique contributions to the field of practice and understanding of job-embedded learning as it presents findings from seven dissertations that examined aspects of professional learning embedded in preK-12 schools.