I am currently conducting research on the modern and contemporary cultural history of Onomichi, commissioned by the city of Onomichi in Hiroshima Prefecture. This research targets works set in Onomichi or by writers from Onomichi, and covers a wide range of genres including novels, poems, haiku, tanka, paintings, manga, and films. I am also conducting a joint research project funded by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) on the representation of heroes in postwar Japanese cultural history (Project/Area Number 22K00132.) In this paper, I will discuss some of the issues that emerged in the course of this research and our joint research, while also taking into account the issues raised in an article I wrote in the past ("A Consideration of 'Geo-Regionality and Literature': A Review of Previous Studies and a Perspective", Modern Literature Review, No. 60, 2022).
I would like to discuss this issue from the following perspectives.
1.Clarify the "relationship between locality and literature" while also considering its historical background and power relations in society
2.Clarify what is the uniqueness and independence in the regional and heroic representations in the works set in Onomichi or by artists of Onomichi origin.
3.To analyze the Asian representations and "imperial imagination" of these works with an eye to their wartime historical context.