| My dissertation examines the body metaphor of modern monsters (hybrid beasts, robots, evil twins, doppelgangers) in modern Japanese literature (1900-1940). Texts from this period repeatedly surrounded the theme of abnormal births and new ways of imagining biological reproduction. Each chapter focuses on the dialogue between modern reproductive science and monster narratives. The key authors I treat are: Izumi Kyoka, Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke, Edogawa Ranpo, Yokomizo Seishi, and Yumeno Kyusaku. My research aims to undo the binary of science and literature and that of the rational and the irrational by revealing how these "fantastic" monstrous bodies reflect the larger shifts in reproductive science (hygiene, eugenics, birth control movement, mechanical reproduction, etc.) and its conceptualization of gender, especially in regards to the female body and its reproductive organs. |
