Anri Yasuda Awarded F. Hilary Conroy First Book Prize

Congratulations to Anri Yasuda (DEALLC) whose book Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890–1930 has been awarded the 2nd annual F. Hilary Conroy First Book Prize by the Modern Japan History Association!

From the announcement webpage:

"Beauty Matters investigates the ineffable, non-discursive qualities of socially engaged art through the Japanese novel. The book traces a genealogy of meditations on the seemingly contradictory task taken up by Japan's self-consciously modern writers: to expose unpleasant psychological and social truths while producing aesthetically pleasing compositions. In her own beautiful prose, Yasuda plumbs the writings, lives, and visual art inspiration of Natsume Sōseki, Mori Ogai, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, and Mushanokōji Saneatsu, showing the novel as a uniquely capacious instrument for social critique and political agency in the early twentieth century."