Soundings in Time

Roy Starrs holds a PhD in Asian Studies from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver) and has taught there as well as at Union College (New York) and Aarhus University (Denmark). He is currently Head of Japanese and Asian Studies at the University of Otago (New Zealand). As a researcher he has spent many years in Japan, including time as a Japan Foundation fellow in 1994/5 and 2000/1. His books include Deadly Dialectics: Sex, Violence and Nihilism in the World of Yukio Mishima; An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetic of Shiga Naoya; Soundings in Time: The Fictive Art of Yasunari Kawabata. He has also edited a number of books including Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization.

• Introduction, 1 An Orphan Psychology, 2 An Ambiguous Redemption, 3 Experiment and Expansion, 4 Between Tradition and Modernity, 5 Elegies for A Dying Tradition, 6 Time and Anti-time, 7 Narcissus in Winter

'Starrs still manages to not alienate or overwhelm the reader in verbose rhetoric as he moves form subject to subject. "Soundings" is at times an excellent piece of comparative literature, and at others an equally worthy analysis of Kawabata's diverse career. "Soundings" will inspire its readers to delve into the "ficitve art" of the great writer, Yasunari Kawabata.' - John Soltice, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies...the book is well worthy to be introduced not only to readers of Kawabata and Japanese literature in general, but also to wider audiences because of its broader cultural perspective. - Japanese Studies, Sakuko Matsui