Description
Ueno (humanities and sociology, U. of Tokyo) provides a combination of sociological, historical, anthropological, and journalistic perspectives to her collection of essays that examine, among other things, the modern Japanese family in transformation. Evidence of the transformation can be seen in the massive discrepancy between the stereotypical "ideal" modern Japanese family and what a Japanese family appears to actually be through the eyes of individual family members. This study of family identity and transformation is a perceptive work from a prolific author who is considered Japan's foremost feminist scholar. It is distributed in the U.S. by ISBS. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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This award-winning book brings together Chizuko Ueno's groundbreaking essays on the rise and fall of the modern family in Japan. Combining historical, sociological, anthropological, and journalistic methodologies, Ueno - who is arguably the foremost feminist theoretician in Japan - delineates in vivid detail how the family has been changing in form and function in the last hundred years. In each chapter, Ueno introduces the reader to a different facet of modern Japanese family life, ranging from children who fantasize about being orphans to the elderly who confront 'pre-senescence.' The central focus is on the housewife - her history, her ever-changing responsibilities, her ways of surviving mid-life crisis. This is an indispensable book for students and scholars seeking to understand modern Japan.
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