East Asian Lang. & Lit Faculty
at the University of Florida


J. A. Murphy...

Assoc. Professor
Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Office: Pugh Hall 339
University of Florida, Gainesville
murphy7312@ufl.edu

Fields: modern Japanese literature and film, media, new media, tortured relation of humanities and science, neurophysiological basis of narrative
BS-- Mechanical Engineering, USNA 1983
PhD-- Cornell, 1995


Go ahead. Click on it. Lombardi Scholars Projects



"If we are attempting
to explain something that
actually exists...
then we must anticipate in our definition
that the object is going to change."
- Natsume Soseki, 1911

(persistent fractional Brownian function, D=2.200-- seen from zenith)
- Mandelbrot 1976


-- Upcoming Events:

Summer

Time: 19 Mar 2010 @ 4:00
Place: UF campus, CSE-E119 across from Turlington Hall)
Note: there will be no summer anywhere else
For more information see seasons.org




Course Descriptions:

FALL

SPRING
2011-12 JPT3500 Japanese Culture
JPW 4130 4th year Readings in Japanese Lit 		JPN 3391 Intro to Japanese Film
JPW 4131 Texts and Contexts-- Readings in Contemporary Issues
2010-11 JPT3120 Modern Japanese Lit
JPW 4130 4th year Readings in Japanese Lit		 JPT3121 Cont. Japanese Lit

JPN 4930 Popular Culture and Media in Japan





Click
Here
for
Natsume
Soseki's
Guide
to
"Thesis-
Writing
for
University
Students"

Soseki's Yume juuya:
6/10 Nights of Dreams


(Collective translation by students of JPW4130-- Fall 99)

touch the hand




Recent Publications:

Books:

The Theory of Literature and Other Critical Writings by Natsume Soseki
co-edited with Michael Bourgaghs and Atsuko Ueda, Columbia University Press, 2009
**NOTE: named one of top-ten literary stocking stuffers of 2009 by PRI/BBC World Books

The Metaphorical Circuit: Bridging the Gap Between Literature and Science in 20th Century Japan
Cornell University East Asia Series, 2004

Articles:

"Reconciling the Split Object of Narrative Comprehension," in Jaen-Portillo and Simon, eds., The Cognition of Literature (Austin, UT Press, 2011), pp. 55-77.

"Separation of Cognition and Affect in the Bungakuron," Japan Forum Special Issue on Soseki's Theory of Literature, v. 20 #1 (Mar 2008), 103-126.

"Murakami Haruki"

Great World Writers: Twentieth Century (New York, Marshall Cavendish, in press, Jan 2004)

"Godzilla"

Routledge Encyclopedia of Japanese Popular Culture (London, Routledge, 2002)

"Economies of Culture: The Taisho Bundan Dallies with the Movies"

Japan Forum (Special Issue on Visuality in Modern Japan), v. 11, #1 (1999), 5-22.

"Brownian Movement in Recent Japanese Cinema"Post Script, Special Issue on Contemporary Japanese Cinema, v. 18, #1 (1998), pp. 38-51.

"Visual Pleasure in the Japanese Cinema: Mizoguchi, Kinugasa and the Melodrama of Izumi Kyoka"

in Mizoguchi the Master, Cinemateque/Japan Foundation, 1996


i


-- Japanese Film as an
Ironic Commentary on Hollywood --

Click on THIS image
for a distillation of Noel Burch's
To the Distant Observer (only the good parts!)

 Burchindex

Press here
to see a circle

Special Project: Honda Katsuichi

Honda Katsuichi's legendary piece of reportage, Amerika gasshžkoku (1973) gave Japanese readers a brutally honest picture of life on the margins of American society. Honda returned in 1983 with Soshite waga sokoku-- Nihon where he turns the same critical eye on the margins of his own country, Japan. As part of a project in UF's JPW4131 Texts and Contexts class, students are translating selected portions of the volume on Japan in conjunction with in-class reading of the volume on America. Click on the book cover to see work in progress.
Click on the cover

Special Project 2: Kazuki Kaneshiro

Kazuki Kaneshiro's, GO (2001) is a love story that takes place within the emotional turmoil of a Korean resident in Japan. Funny, fast-paced, young, up-to-date, with a great cover, this Naoki Prize-winning novel appeals to the young and their funny, fast-paced, up-to-date new sensibilities, doubts about identity, etc. Click on the book cover to see our translations in progress.
Click on the cover

Partially updated May 2002