About
こんにちは！「日本現代文学」へようこそ！
Hello! Welcome to Contemporary Japanese Literature! My name is Kathryn Hemmann, and I’m currently a graduate student in the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Department at the University of Pennsylvania.
I’d like to use this blog to write about the various textual manifestations of contemporary Japanese culture, literary or otherwise. Wish me luck!
どうぞよろしくお願い致します～！
(Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, my muse)
Colleen said,
May 13, 2008 at 10:45 pm
Are you going to create an RSS feed for this site? I would love to add it to my feed list.
Kathryn said,
May 14, 2008 at 4:20 pm
You’ll have to forgive me, but I am somewhat ignorant when it comes to the internet. I think I have a vague idea of what an RSS feed is, but I’m not sure that I know how to create one. (The WordPress FAQ section was woefully inadequate, unfortunately). Do you have any advice on an easy way to set one up? Could you give me directions to a site that would help?
Thank you for your interest in the blog, by the way. I’ll have to try harder to keep it updated!
captaincosmonaut said,
May 20, 2008 at 1:12 am
I admire that you can write interesting reviews and keep up with them! I often think about writing up some for the films I watch, but never have the followthrough.
RSS feeds are handy little things that function similarly to the general use of livejournal. However, instead of a “friends page” they involve a feed reader such as google reader.
The feed reader keeps track of all of the websites that you read regularly, such as blogs and news and the like, and fetches all the information into a single page so that you can basically read thousands of web stuff on just one page. Like being able to read all your friends journals on your friends page. Adding an RSS feed to your wordpress blog would mean that people could read your blog through their readers without having to actually manually visit your site. This will increase consistent readership since we are all getting lazier and lazier and clicking is getting more and more taxing.
I also have a wordpress blog and I think it’s just a matter of turning the option on.
Edit: Ah! You already do. If you didn’t change this yourself and it was already set, the address for your RSS feed is at feed://japanesetranslations.wordpress.com/feed/
If you are interested in having a reader, I suggest using the google reader because it is free and easy. http://www.google.com/reader/
It’s simply a matter of adding the urls of the feeds (such as the one above) and then letting the internet do all the work for you!
Titania said,
October 30, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Good luck, Kathryn!
What a challenging area of study! I love your site and your blog. I’ve added your site to my favorites.
~Titania
Kathryn said,
November 15, 2008 at 8:51 pm
Thank you so much! I will say that Japanese literature isn’t quite so challenging – but grad school does tend to eat up my life. I will take inspiration from your compliments and try my best to post more often!
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga said,
December 10, 2008 at 11:32 am
I’m enjoying your blog. I’m no expert in Japanese literature, but know what I like: Tanizaki, some Murakami, and some Banana Yoshimoto. My writing has been influenced by their prose styles and Japanese culture has played a big part in my life for years. ガんばって with all of your studies. I myself just finished grad school (MFA in Writing) and know full well how たいへん it can be!
Kathryn said,
December 10, 2008 at 3:26 pm
どうもありがとうございました～！ (^_^)/
I just ordered a copy of your new book from Amazon. I’m really looking forward to reading it! I am inspired by your relationship with the writing of the three authors you mentioned. I think I will have to post entries on a few of their novels very soon….
Wendy Nelson Tokunaga said,
December 11, 2008 at 2:42 pm
ありがとう！
Smithereens said,
September 4, 2009 at 11:01 am
I just discovered your site and really appreciate it (I recently reviewed Tawara Machi’s Salad Aniversary). I look forward to discovering other novels in (translated) Japanese literature!
Kathryn said,
September 4, 2009 at 3:28 pm
Thank you so much for your comment! I look forward to browsing through your site as well. (^__^)/
madeline said,
November 7, 2009 at 8:24 pm
Love your reviews on various books, and the Engrish category too. madeline
Kathryn said,
November 8, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thank you so much!