Customer Reviews

Partings at Dawn: An Anthology of Japanese Gay Literature (12th - 20th Century)

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As providing something of a counterpart for same-sex male fiction, drama, and philosophies of Ancient Greece (and other Western eras for toleration/veneration of such love) this occasionally random collection of stories is interesting reading. It's mostly scholarly, historical framework serves the purpose of further exposing the freshness of such a long-running and suprisingly vibrant counterculture as Japanese same-sex relations. Stereotypes of "Samurai," "Kabuki" and "Buddhist monks" unexpectedly receive new meaning. As a student in Japanese Studies I found it interesting that, in light of the popularity of gender studies in academia, this subject has not been given more attention. It's obvious this book intends to be both readable and scholarly; at both of which it, mostly, succeeds.

It is better to divide in two volumes, : i.e. premodern and contemporary Japanese gay literature, since most of westerners don't know Japanese male-love history. Modern anthology of Japanese is easy to read for common Americans, on the other hand, classical one is much difficult for the ignorant.

There are so many references and footnotes, half the time I was lost whether I was reading the text or authors notes. The historical stories were ok - again the footnotes and authors descriptions made it very difficult to read. Overall I would not recommend this book to anyone that is not a serious reader. Joe Alaimo