The history of how Japan imported and translated the detective story in the late 19th century will be shared by Mark Silver, assistant professor of Japanese at Connecticut College. "Purloined Letters: Cultural Borrowing and The Translated Detective Novel in Meiji Japan" will be presented on March 28 from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in 115 Mendenhall Lab.

The lecture is part of the East Asian Studies Lecture Series, co-sponsored by the Institute for Japanese Studies and the East Asian Studies Center. Because Japan had no exact equivalent to the detective story before the country was opened to the West, and the distinctive nature of the detective story itself, Silver believes it is an interesting case study in the dynamics of literary and cultural borrowing.

The surprising quirks in the output of Kuroiwa Ruikô, one of the most prolific Meiji-period adaptors and translators of the Western Detective story, suggests we need to broaden conventional views of Japanese literary "imitation" during this period. By broadening the scope, the realm of popular culture emerges and the power of local contexts - including politics - in which the so-called imitation occurred.