Publications of Note

Local Environmental Movements: A Comparative Study of the United States and Japan. Edited by Pradyumna P. Karan and Unryu Suganuma. University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2008. xii, 303 pages. $55.00. This collection of 19 essays springs from a 2003 conference at the University of Kentucky focused on the complex dynamics of local environmental groups' influence in Japan and the United States. Subjects range from nuclear and chemical cleanup to urban farming in Tokyo, people-wildlife relations, and international politics and norms in local environmental protest movements.

Alles nur Theater? Gender und Ethnizität bei der japankoreanischen Autorin Yu Miri. By Kristina Iwata-Weickgenannt. Iudicium Verlag, Munich, 2008. 473 pages. €39.60. With background to provide literary, political, and historical context, this work examines the construction of ethnic and sexual identity in the work of Yū Miri. Yū is a popular and award-winning author but has received little attention in previous Western-language studies. Iwata Weickgenannt gives special attention to the role of media, identity, and the self in texts by Yū.

"Fremde" im eigenen Land: Die "Burakumin" in der modernen japanischen Literatur. By Renate Jaschke. Iudicium Verlag, Munich, 2007. 304 pages. €29.60. This study explores how Burakumin are presented in modern Japanese literature, often as "strangers in their own land." This Japanese minority has been a repeated theme for literary works in the modern period, and Jaschke attempts to understand the approach of non-Burakumin authors and to counter the prejudice that has frequently come into play.