American and Indigenous Studies, BTTI, Japanese, L&L Division, and Literature Presents

A Queer, Queer Race: Translating the Lost Generation of Japanese American Literature (1885–1925)

Queer studies of translation often begin from the observation that “what aligns translation with queer sexuality is its nonproductive nature” (Baer 2021). Under this view, literary works in national languages might be seen as original products of creative genius, but translations are the unnatural result of craft or techne, artificial reproductions that will always tend towards loss, never belonging to the organic body of the nation-as-family.

This alignment between translation and queerness is particularly heightened for studies of Japanese-language literature written by Japanese students, expatriates, and immigrants who lived in the United States during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Although historians have classified this generation as the “Issei,” or first generation of Japanese America, this talk explores what we might find if we understand this group as a “lost” generation — a non-generative generation composed overwhelmingly of single men, or “Issei bachelors,” a generation that was both lost in, but might also be found through, translation.

Zoom link: 
https://bard.zoom.us/j/81664065137?pwd=00K74KYJixEHczFzei9KgCu3ObN05X.1

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For more information, call 845-758-6822, e-mail [email protected],
or visit https://bard.zoom.us/j/81664065137?pwd=00K74KYJixEHczFzei9KgCu3ObN05X.1.

Time: 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST/GMT-5

Location: Online Event

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