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Christopher Smith

Assistant Professor of Japanese
Ph.D., University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Office Hours — Fall 2023

  • Mondays: 11:45 a.m. to 12:35 p.m.
  • Wednesdays: 1:55 to 2:45 p.m.
  • By appointment

Bio

Christopher Smith received a PhD in Japanese literature from the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and is currently an Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese Literature at the University of Florida, where he teaches courses on modern Japanese literature, Japanese culture, manga, and anime. His research focuses on postwar Japanese literature, particularly contemporary literature (Heisei-Reiwa), as well as Japanese pop culture, including manga and anime. He is especially interested in examining how literature and culture represents, manipulates, and ultimately plays with Japanese history, examined through the lenses of nationalism, national identity, the historical legitimation of power, and postmodernism. He recently published a translation of Tanaka Yasuo’s Somehow, Crystal (Kurodahan Press).

Areas of Interest

Postwar Japanese literature, Edo-period Japanese literature, Japanese popular culture and visual culture, postmodern theory

Selected Publications

  • Smith, Christopher. “‘Otoko No Ko Deshou?’ Evangelion and Queer Masculinity.” Electronic Journal of Contemporary Japanese Studies 23, no. 1 (April 2023).
  • Smith, Christopher. “The Text inside Us: Text on Screen and the Intertextual Self in Bakemonogatari,” Word & Image38, no. 3 (2022): 254–64.
  • Smith, Christopher. “Becoming Illegible: The Repatriation of Japanese Fan Culture in Genshiken. ”Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 12, no. 3 (May 4, 2021): 254–65.
  • Smith, Christopher. “A Benkei for Every Age: Musashibō Benkei as Palimpsest,” Japanese Language and Literature 55, no. 1 (April 21, 2021): 65–103.
  • Smith, Christopher. “Database Nationalism: The Disaggregation of Nation, Nationalism and Symbol in Pop Culture.” In The Representation of Japanese Politics in Manga: The Visual Literacy of Statecraft, edited by Roman Rosenbaum, 203–22. London: Routledge, 2020.
  • Smith, Christopher. “Somehow, Dialogic: The Dialogic Self and the Rejection of the Modern in Nantonaku, Kurisutaru.” The Journal of Japanese Studies46, no. 2 (2020):369–93.
  • Smith, Christopher. “Who Said That? Textuality in Eighteenth Century kibyōshi.” Japan Forum 29, no. 2 (2016): 279-98.
  • Smith, Christopher. “Empire as Mirror: Imperialism and Identity in the Crest/Banner ofthe Stars Series.”Science Fiction Film & Television7, no. 3 (January 1, 2014): 409–32.

Courses Taught

  • JPN 4956: UF in Japan–Study Abroad Program in Tokyo and Kyoto
  • JPT 1311: The Anim(e)ted World–Global Issues Through Anime
  • JPT 3120: Introduction to Modern Japanese Literature
  • JPT 3121: Japanese Literature–Postwar to Postmodern
  • JPT 3140: Modern Japanese Women Writers
  • JPT 3330: Early Modern Japanese Literature
  • JPT 3391: Introduction to Japanese Film
  • JPT 3500: Introduction to Japanese Culture
  • JPT 3702: Japanese Visual Culture
  • JPT 4510: Representations of Japan’s Modern Empire
  • JPW 4130: Reading Japanese Literature