Undercover agents of modernity: Sleuthing city, colony, and body in Japanese detective fiction

This project examines the relationship between fiction and historical reality in early twentieth century Japan through the example of tantei shosetsu [detective fiction]. Through constant reinvention and reconfiguration of characters, plots, and formulas, the genre shapes and reshapes the world in which it is produced. It invites readers to contemplate their logic, surroundings, and existence through tantalizing mysteries of murder and intrigue. Be it a story of murder, theft, or blackmail, a work of detective fiction lets one explore the dark corners of one's everyday through an imaginary disruption of that everyday. The uncertain nature of this "guilty pleasure" made the genre's invasion into the leisure time of its readers all the more effective. Less interested in upholding the format of the genre than their Western counterparts, Japanese detective writers used the framework of detective fiction to package and disseminate their ideas on such modern phenomena as urbanization, privacy (both its acquisition and its violation), abnormal sexuality, and total war. The central figures of such stories, whom I call the "undercover agents of modernity," readily immersed themselves in the mayhem of modernity by probing the three sources of modern mystery---city, colony, and body. Fueled both by their daring attitude to know and their willingness to transgress conventional boundaries, these agents explore and redefine these spaces and repackage the general anxiety toward modern life into a digestible, consumable form---all the while looking to steer an ethical course through the twists and turns of the modern experience.