Writing the Love of Boys

Jeffrey Angles is associate professor of modern Japanese literature and translation studies at Western Michigan University.

• Note about Japanese NamesIntroduction1. Blow the Blood-Stained Bugle: Murayama Kaita and the Language of Personal Sensation2. Treading the Edges of the Known World: Homoerotic Fantasies in Murayama Kaita's Prose3. The Appeal of the Strange: Same-Sex Desire in Edogawa Ranpo's Mystery Fiction4. (Re)Discovering Same-Sex Love: Ranpo and the Creation of Queer History 5. Uninscribing the Adolescent Body: Aesthetic Resistance in Taruho's WritingConclusion: Postwar LegaciesAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

"Writing the Love of Boys makes an important contribution to the study of sexuality in modern Japan. Jeffrey Angles thoughtfully examines the representation of male-male sexuality in the work of three prewar Japanese writers, offering insightful commentary on the specific features of how each writer depicts male-male desire and uses their texts as a lens through which to explore larger currents in the literary and sexual culture of the time." -Jim Reichert, author of In the Company of Men: Representations of Male-Male Sexuality in Meiji Literature"Angles vividly resurrects a current of Japanese literary modernism-namely, its estheticization of the ‘love of boys’-that previous narratives have obscured. From the perspective of queer history and culture the trio of authors on whom he focuses-Kaita, Ranpo, Taruho-form a fascinating and lastingly influential lineage." -Gregory Pflugfelder, Columbia University