DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Title

Japanese Branch Report 2000

Authors

Yukiko Ono

Date of this Version

2001

Document Type

Article

Citation

The George Eliot Review 32 (2001)

Comments

Published by The George Eliot Review Online https://GeorgeEliotReview.org

Abstract

The fourth annual convention of the George Eliot Fellowship of Japan was held at Kinki University in Osaka on Saturday, 25 November 2000.

The morning session began with a welcome speech by Norio Murase, Dean of the Literature Department of Kinki University. He said, 'George Eliot seems to be similar to Nukada-noookimi, a famous poet of Mayoshu, the oldest collected Japanese verses, in the seventh century, not in appearance, but in abundance of feeling.'

The first paper, 'Clothing in Janet's Repentance', was presented by Masae Ukawa, a full-time lecturer at Kurashiki University of Science and the Arts. She observed the trouble and the change of people's mind through the description of the main characters' dresses and ornaments and concluded that the religious conflicts in the story's background affected their choice of clothes. Fumiko Nishiyama, a graduate student from Kobe University, presented the second paper, 'Hesitation to Progress: The Paradigm of Degeneration in Daniel Deronda'. She pointed out that people of the upper class, and the middle class that Gwendolen belonged to, were unsteady and uncertain in their mind, and that made her nervous. In the third paper, Yoko Nagai, a full-time lecturer at Keio University, explained the motif of the play, 'Adam Bede’, the manuscript of which she read at the British Museum. Then she referred to the play Gwendolen played in the novel, Daniel Deronda. She discussed the relationship between Victorian novels and plays.

The afternoon session began with the general meeting, presided over by Yoshitsugu Uchida, a professor at Kansai Gaidai University. Nobutetsu Fukunaga, a professor at Okayama University, reported that the British members of the George Eliot Fellowship, whom met in Nuneaton in 2000, thanked the Japanese members for the bench, a present from the Japanese Branch.