Monkey Business Event
Monkey Business is an annual literary journal featuring contemporary Japanese literature in English translation. The editors make an annual trip to the US to bring Japanese and American writers into dialogue and this year, Professor Anna Elliott brought invited them to bring the event to BU. Over 100 student, faculty members and other in the BU community enjoyed a dialogue between contemporary Japanese and American authors Hiromi Ito, Jamaica Kincaid, Hiroko Oyamada, and Brian Evenson.
Comparative Literature major, Serena Tara, wrote her impressions of the event: “Hiromi Itō, a contemporary Japanese poet, read a poem from her book “Killing Kanoko” and it was absolutely mesmerizing. The way she acted the poem, the intensity with which she pronounced very single word completely amazed me. The poem, as she pointed out, was about killing her own daughter. Of course, it was fiction. Yet, Kanoko is really the name of her daughter. The poem, I think, deals with the struggle of becoming a mother, the confusing and (at first) ‘unnatural’ concept of feeding a being from your breast, the selfishness of not wanting to spend your time to feed and raise an infant. It was moving and inspiring as it dealt with the role of not only women in society but also of mothers in a family, and all that weighs on their shoulders. Another author, Jamaica Kincaid, read her poem “Girl”, an implicit and sarcastic critique of all the manners and teachings that are imposed on girls who are growing into adults. Her poem …described the limited freedom of girls…as everything, if done in the ‘wrong’ way could become ‘inappropriate’ for a girl. Implicitly, her poem suggests that, sadly, in our society nothing is… considered ‘inappropriate’ for a boy. I loved hearing these two authors exchanging ideas and comments and I was very happy to participate to such an inspiring event.”
The event was sponsored by the BU Center for the Humanities and co-sponsored by the Translation Seminar, NEH Distinguished Teaching Professorship, Department of World Languages & Literatures, Creative Writing Program, Department of English, Japanese Language Program and Boston University’s Center for the Study of Asia.
Check out videos from the event below!
- Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers Dialogue – Panel Discussion 1:
2. Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers Dialogue – Panel Discussion 2
3. Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers Dialogue – Anna Elliott – Introduction
4. Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers Dialogue – Motoyuki Shibata & Ted Goossen
5. Monkey Business: Japan/America Writers Dialogue – Q & A