It is not well known that Brazil is home to the largest number of persons of Japanese descent outside of Japan itself, with a population that likely exceeds that of the United States. Still less known is the fact that this population possesses a century-long history of not only consuming Japanese-language literature, but also producing it. This talk will present a brief overview of this history, with a focus on its early decades (1908-1941), and then consider ways that this history prompts us to reconsider many of the tacit and explicit presumptions that underlie the field of modern Japanese literature.

Edward Mack teaches modern Japanese literature and film at the University of Washington. His book, _Manufacturing Modern Japanese Literature_, examines the relationship between the concept of a national literature and the publishing industry. His current project is on the reading and writing of literature in the Japanese immigrant community in Brazil prior to the Second World War.