Monstrous Geographies in Japan
Dr James Kneale recently spent a fortnight as a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan
James Kneale recently spent a fortnight as a visiting researcher at the University of Tokyo, Japan, under the 'Utopia' programme. This allows American and British Studies researchers at the Universities of Tokyo, Yokohama Kokuritsu and Hokkaido to invite visiting scholars to present papers and work on a range of projects related to the notion of 'Utopia'. Much of James's time was spent working with Professors Sheila Hones and Yujin Yaguchi, and teaching and commenting on graduate students' work.
James and Dr Ian Cook (University of Exeter) also contributed to a one-day symposium aimed at establishing future research on 'Literary Geographies of the Monstrous'. Drawing on his expertise in non-realist fictions, James spoke on 'Monstrous Geographies', tracing the relationship between modernity, science and monstrosity and exploring sites of monstrosity within the heart of the Imperial metropolis. His main example was Bloomsbury, which features in many monster stories from the horror fictions of Artur Machen to the 1929 film of Arthur Conan Doyle's 'The Lost World'', where a brontosaurus rampages outside the British Museum.
