Marianne Tarcov, “Poets as Benshi: Navigating and Subverting Censorship in Wartime Japanese Poetry and Mass Media”
Thursday, October 27, 12:00 – 1:30 in Wieboldt 301N
This Thursday, we are pleased to host a mock job talk by Marianne Tarcov (Visiting Lecturer, EALC, University of Chicago). She summarizes her talk as follows:
This talk discusses several Japanese 1930s lyric poets’ use of formal motifs drawn from mass media in their works of propagandistic nationalism during the Pacific War, and argues that these writers endued their works of nationalistic poetry with oblique criticism of wartime censorship. Their strategies include reinventions of techniques to evade the censors once employed by silent film narrators, or benshi. In oral performances for recordings and radio, the writers discussed here broadcast their ambivalence towards their place as nationalized poets enlisted in a militaristic enterprise.
Please note the special time and location of this event. This is a lunchtime talk, and pizza and refreshments will be served. We hope to see you there!
