A Japanese Professor from the University of Tokyo will come to Vietnam to give lectures on Japanese literature from September 16 to 28.

Professor Numano will give an overview of Japanese literature from the ancient times to the 21st century. In particular, he will make a quick review on a number of Japanese novelists and poets in the modern times, from Soseki Natsume to Haruki Murakami whose stories ‘The Wind-up Birds Chronicles’, ‘Norwegian Wood’ and ‘Sputnik Sweetheart’ have been translated into Vietnamese and read by many local people, and the post-Murakami generation.

In addition, in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Professor Numano and some Vietnamese scholars will present a panel discussion regarding Japanese literature as well as Vietnamese literature and the world literature.

The organiser of the event which is the Japan Centre for Cultural Exchanges in Vietnam, expects that this series of lecture and discussion will give a chance to get better knowledge of Japanese literature in general as well as to introduce the uniqueness and significance of modern Japanese literature to Vietnamese researchers, critics, writers, and students, as well as general readers who have great interest in Japanese literature.

This academic event is hoped to fostering cultural exchange in literature research between Vietnam and Japan.

Lectures will take place in Institute of Literature, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences in Hanoi; Hue University in Hue; Da Nang University in Da Nang and Centre of Japanese Studies, University of Social Sciences and Humanity, National University in Ho Chi Minh City with free admission.

Born in Tokyo in 1954, Mitsuyoshi Numano is Professor of Slavic Language and Literature at the University of Tokyo with the specialisation in Russian and Polish literature. He graduated from the University of Tokyo and Harvard University was winner of 2002 Suntory Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities for Tetsuya no katamari: bomei bungakuron (A String of Sleepless Nights: Essays on Exile Literature) and the 2004 Yomiuri Literature Prize for Yutopia bungakuron (Utopian Literature).

VietNamNet/Nhan Dan