Dawn to the West—Japanese Literature of the Modern Era : Poetry, Drama, Criticism

Originally published in 1984 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, reprinted here with a brief new preface by the author. His two Dawn to the west volumes, written over a 15-year period, study the literature written in Japan since the beginning of the new period inaugurated by the Meiji Restoration of 1868. The first focuses on fiction, while this second volume discusses poetry in traditional forms (modern tanka and modern haiku); in new forms in the Meiji, Taisho, and Showa periods; modern drama (kabuki, and shimpa and shingeki); and criticism in each period. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Hailed in the New York Times Book Review as "the century's leading expert on Japanese literature, as well as its most indefatigable translator," Donald Keene is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and University Professor Emeritus at Columbia University. He is the author, editor, or translator of over thirty books of criticism and works of literature, including No and Bunraku, Twenty Plays of the No Theater, Major Plays of Chikamatsu, The Pleasures of Japanese Literature, Three Plays by Kobo Abe, Modern Japanese Diaries, Essays in Idleness, and Travelers of a Hundred Ages (all published by Columbia).