Professor Anri Yasuda (DEALLC) is delivering an online book talk as part of the University of British Columbia's Japan Lecture Series, where she will be discussing her 2024 monograph Beauty Matters: Modern Japanese Literature and the Question of Aesthetics, 1890-1930 . 

The monograph examines how writers, living through a period of profound changes in Japanese culture and society, had viewed literature as an avenue not just for critical engagement with lived realities, but also the pursuit of aesthetic ideals. Yasuda focuses on how Meiji- and Taishō-period writers’ interest in the visual arts and the dynamics of visuality shaped their understanding of literature’s unique expressive potentials, including its capacity to appeal affectively to both subjective and inter-subjective sensibilities. Through her analyses of texts by authors like Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916) and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke (1892-1927), Yasuda argues that timeless questions about beauty are at the heart of modern literature’s ability to illumine the inimitable experiences of being human.

The talk, scheduled for Friday, October 10, 2025 4:00pm – 5:30pm PT (7-8:30pm EST) is free and open to the public, and will be held on Zoom; registration is required.