A Sense of the City

In A Sense of the City, Gala Maria Follaco examines Nagai Kafu’s (1879-1959) literary construction of urban spatialities from late Meiji through the early Showa period. She argues that Kafu’s urban critique was based on his awareness of the cultural sedimentation of the cityscape and of the complex relationship that it bore with the historical framework of modern Japan.

With the overall aim to define Kafu’s position within pre-war Japanese literature, Follaco touches upon key issues such as memory, class difference, and language ideologies; draws connections between his sojourn abroad and strategies of “mapping” the city of Tokyo in his literature; and takes into account works previously understudied, including his biography of Washizu Kido and his photographs.