The 30th annual meeting of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies will be held at University of Pittsburgh May 12–14, 2023 in the Cathedral of Learning Room 332 & Room 324. The event will be hosted by Charles Exley and Elizabeth Oyler, University of Pittsburgh, with the cooperation of Christopher Lowy and Yoshihiro Yasuhara, Carnegie Mellon University.

We live in a world both fragmented and connected through technologies enabling new platforms for creative expression. These range from online publishing to co-located theatrical productions to tiktok. Such platforms bring to the fore the possibility for performance to be simultaneously playful, individually creative, and socially engaged as they redefine the temporal and spatial parameters of “performance.” The transformation of how, what, and where we perform and experience performances has evolved dramatically in very recent years, but the roles that performance and other arts play as spaces for creative engagement with society, contemporary politics, and the past have been important worldwide throughout history. In Japan, the numerous traditional performing arts designated as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO attest to the significance of performance as a defining cultural feature, as do contemporary experimental theatre companies and the thriving film industry. From early myth through court ceremony and medieval and early modern theatre to 20th- and 21st century street theatre and anime, performance has been an important tool to provoke, to transform, and to reimagine.

Learn more at: https://www.japanstudies.pitt.edu/ajls-pitt-conference