Read Japanese Literature

What a wonderfully researched and produced podcast. The host has obviously thought deeply about the books and themes and each episode is filled with not only information, but a clear love and interest in the topics. Highly recommended.

The kind of feminist, “queer-friendly,” and worldview-by-headlines political ideology burns the edges of this podcast, making it a kind of awkward relic of modern American privileged self-abasing academic supremacy. I’d rather just learn about and be excited to read Japanese literature, but this podcast seems to at least be 1/3 about the authors own ideological preoccupations.

I took an intro to Japanese literature course in school and have been reading it ever since. Craving to broaden my understanding of Japanese literature, I searched for a podcast and struck gold! Alison is so clear and organized in their presentation of the history of Japanese literature, the history of Japan as is most relevant, and overviews of some of the works. I love the scope, cadence, and depth of each episode. I can’t recommend it more highly. Thank you Alison for this beautiful gift to the Japanese lit nerds of the world. (And I vote yes on a guest ep about horror novels!)

I really look forward to this show. It has added depth and context to books I’ve read — I’ve really had no one to discuss these books with. She’s also alerted me to a few authors I haven’t read yet. I appreciate that she gives credit to scholars of literature and historians so that you can follow up and learn more!