Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment

This study explores the cultural trajectory of Japanese American internment, both during and after World War II. It also provides the most exhaustive biographical outline of John Okada to date and refutes the assumption that his novel No-No Boy was all but shunned when first published. A close reading positions the book within world literature.

How can art, how can prose and poetry originate in spite of the restraints of manipulation, propaganda, and censorship? This study explores such issues by focusing on the cultural trajectory of Japanese American internment, both during and after World War II. Previously unknown documents as well as interviews with friends and family reveal new aspects of John Okada's (19231971) life and writing, providing a comprehensive biographical outline of the author. The book refutes the assumption that Okada's novel No-No Boy was all but shunned when first published in 1957. A close reading as well as a comparative study involving Italo Calvino's (19231985) Six Memos for the Next Millennium (1985) position Okada's only book as world literature.

Auteur

Thomas Girst studied Humanities at Hamburg and New York University. He was founding editor of Die Aussenseite des Elementes (1991 2003), the NY-based cultural correspondent for the German daily Die Tageszeitung as well as research manager of the Art Science Research Laboratory. Since 2003, Girst has been Head of Cultural Engagement at the BMW Group. He lectures at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. His most recent publications include The Duchamp Dictionary (2014) and BMW Art Cars (2014).

Résumé
«Girst's work will appeal to scholars working in a variety of geographic and thematic categories, who will appreciate the value of his close reading and integration of previously unknown and unpublished sources, as well as his careful inclusion of illustrations, literary excerpts, exhaustive footnotes, and an extensive bibliography.»
(Elena M. Friot, Pacific Northwest Quarterly Vol. 107 2015/2016)

«[...] Art, Literature, and the Japanese American Internment provides a valuable teaching tool in a university course in Asian American studies. For the general reader, Girst has written a thoughtful and informative study which helps to illuminate the complexity of No-No Boy as a novel as well as the diversity of the Japanese American response to internment.»
(Hamish Ion, Pacific Affairs vol. 90, no. 2/2017)

Contenu

Contents: Japanese American Internment and the Holocaust Artistic Expression and Internment (Isamu Noguchi, Miné Okubo) Publication History, Reception and Teaching of Okadäs «No-No Boy» Italo Calvino John Okada, Writer and World War II Veteran Reading «No-No Boy» as World Literature.