Join us at Evanston's Bookends & Beginnings for a discussion and reading with professors Michael Emmerich and Phyllis Lyons.
A professor of Japanese literature at UCLA, Michael Emmerich is the author of The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (Columbia University Press, 2013) examines the role that translations of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji) into early-modern and modern Japanese, and into English and other languages, have played in creating images of the tale over the past two centuries—reinventing it as a classic of both national and world literature. He is currently working on a project that explores the concept of “translation” as it relates to Japan and to various forms of the Japanese language. He is the author of more than a dozen book-length translations of works by writers such as Kawabata Yasunari, Yoshimoto Banana, Takahashi Gen’ichirō, Akasaka Mari, Yamada Taichi, Matsuura Rieko, Kawakami Hiromi, Furukawa Hideo, and Inoue Yasushi.
Phyllis Lyons is a Professor Emeritus of the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures at Northwestern University. Lyons' area of specialization is modern Japanese fiction; she has published a study of the novelist Dazai Osamu (1909-1948), and is currently translating short novels by Tanizaki Jun'ichirù (1886-1965).
Cost: Free and open to the public