[Past Event] International Crime Fiction: Japan | Livestream Zoom

Course Description:

Our exploration of crime fiction around the globe continues with two masterful novels from Japan. Seicho Matsumoto’s "Inspector Imanishi Investigates" (1961), is a Tokyo-set police procedural by Japan's foremost master of mystery that offers an indelible portrait of mid-century Japanese culture and society. "The Devotion of Suspect X" (2005), by Keigo Higashino, provides a twenty-first century vision of Tokyo and its police force. As we immerse ourselves in these mysteries, we will consider how life in Japan has transformed over the half-century between the two books. We will also explore ways that each borrows and builds upon Western crime fiction tropes, as well as how cultural specifics shape the narratives and set them apart from their American and British counterparts.