CEAS Lecture Series ft. Samuel E. Perry

THIS IS AN IN-PERSON EVENT AND WILL NOT BE LIVE STREAMING.

LECTURE ABSTRACT

The mid-1970s marked a profound sort of pivoting for gay writing in Japan—the moment when its perverse affiliations with sex work, S/M, and solidarities with nonbinary people— in other words much of its very queerness—were increasingly set aside with its incorporation into a more masculinist, homonormative, and neocolonialist cultural formation. As gay Japanese men began to reassert their privilege—and do so confidently as global consumers and travelers—new spaces of representation in Japan magnified a subculture that had long eroticized the experience of the soldier, and also amplified the imperial circuits of desire for non-Japanese bodies. Professor Perry’s talk examines works of pulp fiction, in particular, written by gay men he read at the center of contestations over the intersection of sexuality and empire.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Samuel Perry is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies and Comparative Literature at Brown University. His research seeks to understand the complex and often contradictory strategies by which marginalized people have contested dominant cultures. His most recent publication is A Century of Queer Korean Fiction, a collection of translated Korean stories published with the MLA, alongside a Korean-language companion volume called Han’guk ŭi k’wiŏ munhak: Han segi.

CEAS LECTURE SERIES

The CEAS Lecture Series is an initiative that advances the University of Chicago's Center for East Asian Studies' mission in fostering dialogue and interdisciplinary collaboration. This annual public lecture series presents eminent scholars who concentrate on the study of East Asia in a variety of disciplines. For more information on the series, follow the link here: https://ceas.uchicago.edu/content/ceas-lecture-series-1

SPONSORSHIP

This event is co-sponsored with the University of Chicago Library.

P HOTOGRAPHY/VIDEOGRAPHY

Please note that there may be photography taken during this educational event by the University of Chicago Center for East Asian Studies for archival and publicity purposes. By attending this event, participants are confirming their permission to be photographed and the University of Chicago’s right to use, distribute, copy, and edit the recordings in any form of media for non-commercial, educational purposes, and to grant rights to third parties to do any of the foregoing.