The significance of Japanese literature is rapidly getting small. In a sense, this may be inevitable because the myth of the nation state which literature had contributed much to forming is now largely dismantled. It doesn't mean, however, that literature ended its historical role. In this more globalized information-oriented society, I believe, there is a part it can play. Indeed, the Japanese Literature Association was originally started as an attempt to liberate Japanese literature from the curse of pre-war imperialism and turn it into a more liberal academic subject. But unfortunately such a reformistic passion is now almost forgotten, and social and cultural duties literary studies should do are deplorably neglected. Literary studies will and must become more globalized. We, Japanese literature scholars, are now required to meet this situation.
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