Japanese Language and Literature

Japanese Language and Literature (JLL) is a journal published twice yearly (in April and November) by the Association of Teachers of Japanese (ATJ). Published continuously since the founding of the ATJ in 1963, JLL covers material on Japanese pedagogy , Japanese linguistics and Japanese literature. It also carries reviews of books germane to its main areas of interest. Past contributors include Donald Keene, Edward Seidensticker, Etō Jun and many other distinguished names.

The journal also carries lists of doctoral (PhD) and, in later years, MA theses. As Japanese Studies has grown in popularity as a field, in recent editions these abstracts have come to take up a considerable portion of the journal, on average about fifty pages. These cover institutions primarily in north America, but there are also entries from the UK, Australia, and other countries.

Articles are fairly evenly balanced among the three main areas of interest, although of late (since 2001) pedagogy and linguistics-related contributions seem to have come to outweigh literary content. As an example, the October 2001 edition carries articles entitled Towards a Feminist Critical Pedagogy in a Beginning-Japanese-as-a-Foreign-Language Class, Aesthetics of Unconventionality: Fūryū in Ikkyū's poetry, and Heritage Language Students of Japanese in Traditional Foreign Language Classes: A Preliminary Empirical Study.

As well as reviews of scholarly articles, reviews are also included of the latest textbooks, grammars and vocabulary guides, which is obviously useful for those of us still struggling to master the Japanese language. Although useful for those engaged in research in Japanese literature, JLL will be of most use to those either actively engaged in teaching the language or those doing research in the field of linguistics or pedagogy. Subscriptions are available through the ATJ's website or by contacting the secretary directly (see link below).

References

Japanese Language and Literature, The Association of Teachers of Japanese. Further details available at the ATJ's web site.