Reading about Japan at I-House Library
"Gayle Sato reads from Tropic of Orange
by Karen Tei Yamashita"

Monday, December 9, 2013, 7:00 pm
The Library, International House of Japan
Language: English (Without Japanese interpretation)
Admission: 500 yen (Members and Library members:
free)*Reservations required

Karen Tei Yamashita (1951-) is Professor of Literature/Creative Writing at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In 2011 she was named a Fellow of United States Artists. Yamashita’s relationship with Japan started in
1971 when she attended Waseda University as an exchange student to research her ancestry. In 1974, she went to Brazil on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship to study the history of Japanese immigration there, and she ended up staying in Brazil for ten years before returning to the USA.
Her works focus on the necessity of mulicultural communities and the destabilizing of orthodox notions of borders and national and ethnic identity.

In this reading session, Gayle Sato, a scholar of Asian American literature, will read from Yamashita’s third novel, Tropic of Orange (1997), which reflects her vision of American society from the perspective of her family’s immigrant experience, bringing her understanding of Brazil and Japan into relationship with the United States. This cultural triangulation of Japan/Brazil/America is fundamental to Yamashita’s vision and craft as a writer.

Through this session, Sato will talk about what a Japanese American point of view asks about Japan, and how a Japanese American point of view places Japan in relationship with the United States. Karen Tei Yamashita will be present.

Gayle K. Sato, Ph.D., is Professor of English at Meiji University, Tokyo. She is co-author of America Viewed from the Asian Periphery:
1850-1950
(Sairyusha, 2010) and co-editor of Reading Japanese American Literature :Legacy of Three Generations (Sogensha, 1999).
Her articles and essays have appeared in Amerasia Journal, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, The Japanese Journal of American Studies, MELUS, and Paradoxa.

Contact & Registrations
The Library, International House of Japan
5-11-16, Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo 106-0032
Tel：03-3470-3213 Fax：03-3475-0424 E-mail:
infolib@i-house.or.jp