Kawakami Mieko’s Natsu monogatari as a global novel: Form, themes and transnational circulation

Authors

  • Francesco Eugenio Barbieri University of Bergamo

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.13135/1825-263X/13073

Abstract

This paper explores the possibility of interpreting Kawakami Mieko’s Natsu monogatari as a global novel. Following an introduction that seeks to summarize the major positions of an ongoing debate surrounding the definition of the global novel, I will provide a tentative definition of this literary genre and analyze Kawakami’s novel to argue that it aligns with this classification. Finally, I will draw attention to the process of creation and promotion of the novel outside the Japanese literary market, into the global literary market.

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Author Biography

Francesco Eugenio Barbieri, University of Bergamo

Francesco Eugenio Barbieri is an assistant professor of Japanese Language and Literature at the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at the University of Bergamo.
He obtained his PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of Bologna, where he discussed a thesis in literary theory. From 2014 to 2016, he was a postdoctoral researcher at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, thanks to a research grant awarded by the JSPS (Japan Society for the Promotion of Science).

His current research interests include cont'emporary Japanese literature, specifically the relationship between literature and globalization, and transcultural literature (ekkyō bungaku). He has published essays and contributions on the work of the Japanese writer Tawada Yōko and a monographic volume in Italian on the representation of urban space in a selection of contemporary Japanese authors (Forme e funzioni della città globale nella narrativa giapponese contemporanea. Sarzana – Lugano: Agora & Co.: 2023).

Francesco can be contacted at: francesco.barbieri@unibg.it

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Published

2026-01-10

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2025): Kervan 29

Section

Articles

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