Research Interests

In graduate school I studied the Buddhist traditions of China and Japan, classical Japanese literature, literary criticism of the Edo period, and modern fiction. Research for my doctoral dissertation took me to Osaka University where I began analyzing Edo period commentary on The Tale of Genji. I completed my doctorate in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale University in 1998.  Since then I have taught Japanese language, literature, and film at Amherst College, Columbia University, and Princeton University. My first book, titled Appraising Genji: Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in the Age of the Last Samurai, examines the reception of Genji among scholars, poets, translators, and politicians over the course of the last thousand years.  I incorporate a broad range of works from various periods and genres, including scholarly commentaries, diaries, critical treatises, newspaper accounts, cinematic adaptations, and modern stage productions into my analysis to give readers a sense of how Genji's place in Japanese culture evolved over time.  In writing Appraising Genji I sought to bridge a significant gap between scholarship on premodern literary criticism and modern theories of fiction in Japan. Continued research and reading in Japanese literature have led me to explore a variety of topics, including: intellectual history, nativisim and nationalism, theories of the novel, poetic criticism, and print culture and commercial publishing in premodern Japan. Teaching allows me to explore and discuss literature, drama, and film with my students in ways that continue to inspire and refine my academic work.