Remnants of Mansh¨±koku (Manchukuo): Imamura Eiji, Korean Identity under Japanese Imperialism, and Postcolonial Asian Studies

This paper takes Imamura Eiji (1911¨C?) as a case study in developing a theory of minor literary style and pedagogical poetics in Japanese language Mansh¨± literature. At the same time, it grapples with reading Japanese-language Mansh¨± literature with postcolonial reflexivity. Imamura Eiji was an ethnic Korean who was an active participant in the Japanese language literary community of Japan-occupied Manchuria. While he is best known for his short story ¡°Travel Companions,¡± this paper contends that his work and position within the Manchukuoan state can be better understood through the juxtaposition of multiple of his diverse works, including another short story entitled ¡°New Womb.¡± Borrowing from Elleke Boehmer¡¯s ¡°postcolonial poetics,¡± I approach these texts from the perspective of not merely what politics they attempt, but also how they do so aesthetically and technologically. I conclude that Imamura produced a form of minor style observable in other contemporary literary production as well. While previous work on Imamura has laser focused on decoding his ethnic politics, I argue that we must aim for a more careful and critical reading by remaining aware of the contemporary politics of the academic field and relationality between scholar and text.