Category: Literature

Reading Food in Modern Japanese Literature

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Literature, like food, is, in Terry Eagleton’s words, “endlessly interpretable,” and food, like literature, “looks like an object but is actually a relationship.” So how much do we, and should we, read into the way food is represented in literature? Reading Food in Modern Japanese Literature, by Tomoko Aoyama, explores this and other questions in an unusual and fascinating tour of twentieth-century Japanese literature. Tomoko Aoyama analyzes a wide range of diverse writings that focus on food, eating, and cooking and considers how factors such as industrialization, urbanization, nationalism, and gender construction have affected people’s relationships to food, nature, and culture, and to each other. The examples she offers are taken from novels (shosetsu) and other literary texts and include well known writers (such as Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Hayashi Fumiko, Okamoto Kanoko, Kaiko Takeshi, and Yoshimoto Banana) as well as those who are less widely known (Murai Gensai, Nagatsuka Takashi, Sumii Sue, and Numa Shozo).

September 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3285-8 / $52.00 (CLOTH)

Victoria Kneubuhl Book Signings in August

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Victoria Kneubuhl will be signing copies of her recently published book, the mystery novel Murder Casts a Shadow, at:

Barnes & Noble—Ala Moana Center, Saturday, August 16, 2:00 p.m.
Native Books/Na Mea Hawai‘i—Ward Warehouse, Thursday, August 21, 6:30–8:30 p.m. Group reading by the author and friends, songs by Ku‘uipo Kumukahi, light refreshments to follow.
Borders—Pearlridge, Saturday, August 23, 12 noon
Borders—Ward Center, Sunday, August 24, 2:00 p.m.

Victoria Kneubuhl is also the author of Hawai‘i Nei: Island Plays, published by University of Hawai‘i Press. Both books are available at the UH Press website for 20% off until September 1, 2008.

Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China

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The seventeenth century is generally acknowledged as one of the most politically tumultuous but culturally creative periods of late imperial Chinese history. Scholars have noted the profound effect on, and literary responses to, the fall of the Ming on the male literati elite. Also of great interest is the remarkable emergence beginning in the late Ming of educated women as readers and, more importantly, writers. Only recently beginning to be explored, however, are such seventeenth-century religious phenomena as “the reinvention” of Chan Buddhism—a concerted effort to revive what were believed to be the traditional teachings, texts, and practices of “classical” Chan. And, until now, the role played by women in these religious developments has hardly been noted at all. Eminent Nuns: Women Chan Masters of Seventeenth-Century China, by Beata Grant, is an innovative interdisciplinary work that brings together several of these important seventeenth-century trends.

July 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3202-5 / $46.00 (CLOTH)

Bridal Laments in Rural China

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Performing Grief: Bridal Laments in Rural China, by Anne E. McLaren, is the first in-depth study of Chinese bridal laments, a ritual and performative art practiced by Chinese women in premodern times that gave them a rare opportunity to voice their grievances publicly. Drawing on methodologies from numerous disciplines, including performance arts and folk literatures, the author suggests that the ability to move an audience through her lament was one of the most important symbolic and ritual skills a Chinese woman could possess before the modern era.

July 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3232-2 / $54.00 (CLOTH)

“Performing Grief introduces us to the fascinating culture of the bridal lament. Drawing upon the rich materials from the small village of Shuyuan in Nanhui near Shanghai for her primary materials, the author reconstructs a once vibrant culture in which young women on the eve of their wedding voiced their anxieties in ritual songs. The study is based on extensive local research, makes full use of the existing scholarship on female traditions of lament inside and outside China, and illustrates its argument with the almost complete translation of one of the most fully preserved cycle of laments. This study is an absolute must for anyone who is interested in the position of women in traditional society until quite recently. It also is essential reading for anyone working in the field of Chinese women’s literature as it highlights the rich oral traditions of poor rural women.” –Wilt Idema, Harvard University

Grace Wins 2008 Neustadt International Prize for Literature

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Acclaimed Maori/New Zealand writer Patricia Grace will be honored as the 2008 laureate of the $50,000 Neustadt International Prize for Literature in ceremonies to be held September 19, 2008, at the University of Oklahoma’s Norman campus. An international jury representing ten countries selected Grace as this year’s recipient of the award, which is sponsored by OU’s award-winning bimonthly magazine of international literature and culture, World Literature Today.

University of Hawai‘i Press is the North American publisher of all of Grace’s major work: Dogside Story (Kiriyama Pacific Rim Fiction Prize, 2001), Baby No-Eyes, Cousins, Potiki (New Zealand Fiction Award, 1987), and most recently, Tu. The Press distributes Earth, Sea, Sky: Images and Maori Proverbs from the Natural World of Aotearoa New Zealand, written by Patricia Grace and Waiariki Grace and published by Huia Publishers.

Hawaii Murder Mystery

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New Year’s Eve, 1934. While Honolulu celebrates with champagne and fireworks, someone is making away with the Bishop Museum’s portrait of King Kalakaua and its curator. A series of brutal murders follows, and an unlikely pair, newspaper reporter Mina Beckwith and visiting playwright Ned Manusia, find themselves investigating a twisted trail of clues in an attempt to recover the painting and uncover the killer. Prewar Honolulu comes to life in Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl’s Murder Casts a Shadow, a thoroughly entertaining mystery that evokes a colorful bygone era.

Victoria Kneubuhl is the author of Hawai‘i Nei: Island Plays, published by University of Hawai‘i Press.

June 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3217-9 / $14.95 (PAPER)

Milton Murayama’s Latest: Dying in a Strange Land

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Milton Murayama’s long-awaited Dying in a Strange Land brings to a close the saga of the Oyama family. Familiar faces from All I Asking For Is My Body, Five Years on a Rock, and Plantation Boy return to advance the story from the years immediately following World War II to the 1980s. After her husband sinks them deep in debt, strong-willed and pragmatic Sawa takes charge of the family. The war ends and her children leave the plantation camp for Honolulu and the Mainland, but Sawa has little time for loneliness or regret. When asked by her neighbors if she misses them, she replies, “They must look for what they want.”

June 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3197-4 / $24.95 (PAPER)

A Literature and Medicine Anthology

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Imagine What It’s Like: A Literature and Medicine Anthology, edited by Ruth Nadelhaft, with Victoria Bonebakker, grew out of Literature and Medicine: Humanities at the Heart of Health Care, a national award-winning reading and discussion program for health care professionals that, according to one participant, “renews the heart and soul of health care.” Started by the Maine Humanities Council in 1997, by the beginning of its second decade, Literature and Medicine has reached across the country, from Florida to Montana, Maine to Hawai‘i. Bringing together diverse groups of health care professionals in a variety of health care settings, Literature and Medicine discussions help participants deepen their communication and interpresonal skills while increasing their cultural awareness, empathy for patients, and job satisfaction.

May 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3317-6 / $19.95 (PAPER)

Gender, Agency, and Writing in Late Imperial China

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Herself an Author: Gender, Agency, and Writing in Late Imperial China, by Grace S. Fong, addresses the critical question of how to approach the study of women’s writing. It explores various methods of engaging in a meaningful way with a rich corpus of poetry and prose written by women of the late Ming and Qing periods, much of it rediscovered by the author in rare book collections in China and the United States. The volume treats different genres of writing and includes translations of texts that are made available for the first time in English. Among the works considered are the life-long poetic record of Gan Lirou, the lyrical travel journal kept by Wang Fengxian, and the erotic poetry of the concubine Shen Cai.

“Grace Fong has written a wonderful history of female writers’ participation in the elite conventions of Chinese poetics. Fong’s recovery of many of these poets, her able exegesis and elegant, analytical grasp of what the poets were doing is a great read, and her bilingual presentation of their poetry gives the book additional power. This is a persuasive and elegant study.” —Tani Barlow, author of The Question of Women in Chinese Feminism

May 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3186-8 / $32.00 (PAPER)

An Anthology of Surf Writing

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A thousand years after Hawaiians first paddled long wooden boards into the ocean, modern surfers have continued this practice, which has recently been transformed into a global industry. Pacific Passages: An Anthology of Surf Writing, edited by Patrick Moser, brings together four centuries of writing about surfing, the most comprehensive collection of Polynesian and Western perspectives on the history and culture of a sport currently enjoyed by millions of people around the world. The stories begin with Hawaiian legends and chants and are followed by the journals of explorers; the travel narratives of missionaries and luminaries such as Herman Melville, Mark Twain, and Jack London; and the contemporary observations of Tom Wolfe, William Finnegan, Susan Orlean, and Bob Shacochis.

May 2008 / ISBN 978-0-8248-3155-4 / $32.00 (PAPER)

UH Press to Exhibit at the LA Times Festival of Books

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University of Hawai‘i Press will be participating in the 13th Annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, “the country’s largest celebration of the written word,” on April 26–27.

Leading off the festival will be an awards ceremony honoring recipients of the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes, including the Kirsch Award, which honors a living author with a substantial connection to the American West and whose contribution to American letters deserves special recognition. Maxine Hong Kingston has been named the award’s 28th recipient. The Press is the publisher of Ms. Kingston’s memoir, Hawai‘i One Summer.

Save 25% on Two Modern Classics of Philippine Literature

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Click here and save 25% when you order this specially priced set of the paperback editions of José Rizal’s classic novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.

In Noli Me Tangere (“touch me not”), José Rizal (1861–1896) exposes “matters . . . so delicate that they cannot be touched by anybody,” unfolding an epic history of the Philippines that has made it that country’s most influential political novel in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Rizal, national hero of the Philippines, completed Noli Me Tangere in Spanish in 1887 while he was studying in Europe. He was executed by firing squad in 1896. Since then, Noli Me Tangere has appeared in French, Chinese, German and Philippine languages.

“A huge advance over previous translations, handsomely laid out and with enough footnotes to be helpful without being pettifogging. . . . There are few prophets who are honoured in their own country, and José Rizal is among them. But the condition of this honour has for decades been his unavailability. Mrs. Lacson-Locsin has changed this by giving the great man back his sad and seditious laughter. And it is badly needed.” —London Review of Books

Like its predecessor, Noli Me Tangere, El Filibusterismo (The Subversive) was written in Castilian while Rizal was traveling and studying in Europe. It was published in Ghent in 1891 and later translated into English, German, French, Japanese, Tagalog, Ilonggo, and other languages. A nationalist novel by an author who has been called “the first Filipino,” its nature as a social document of the late-nineteenth-century Philippines is often emphasized. For many years copies of the Fili were smuggled into the Philippines after it was condemned as subversive by the Spanish authorities.

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