International award for contribution to Japanese studies
Senior Lecturer in Japanese Dr Dennitza Gabrakova has received a prestigious international award for her book The Unnamable Archipelago: Wounds of the Postcolonial in Postwar Japanese Literature and Thought.
The Josef Kreiner Hosei University Award for International Japanese Studies was created in 2014 to celebrate the work of Austrian Japanology ethnologist, Josef Kreiner, and encourage overseas scholars of Japanese studies.
Dr Gabrakova’s book, which she has been working on for ten years, examines the meaning of ‘postcolonial’ in postwar Japanese literature and thought. The judges said the book was an important contribution to the advancement of Japanese studies: “Dr Gabrakova’s book explores the creative motif of the ‘island’ in discussing novels by Oba Minako, Ariyoshi Sawako, Hino Keizo, Ikezawa Natsuki, Shimada Masahiko and Tawada Yoko (all well-known authors in Japan but not internationally). Her work argues that the space of the ‘island’ contains a complex interrogation of the community perceived as ‘insular Japan’, and also endeavours to connect with discussions around postcolonialism in other regions.”
Dr Gabrakova explains that one of the selection considerations is an interest in “seeing Japan from the outside” as a dynamic way of invigorating domestic research in the areas of Japanese humanities: “I think the concept of my book resonated in a very nuanced way with this specific vantage point, because the ‘island’ is mostly perceived as ‘island’ from the outside, or in relation to the surrounding world.”
Dr Gabrakova accepted the award at Hosei University Research Center for International Japanese Studies in Tokyo in early February, delivering a public lecture based on her book.