Kyudai News No27 page 12/28

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Kyudai News No27

11 fter entering the English Literature Departmentat Fukuoka Women’s University, I decided towrite my graduation thesis about a work thatmade me sit up and think, so I read a wide range of novels.City of Glass (1985) by the American author Paul Austermade a particularly strong impression on me, so I decidedto focus on this strange book that adopted the form of adetective story to question ideas about what language andpeople truly are. When I actually came to write my thesis, Ifound that I was not satisfied simply to write a graduationthesis, as there were many things that I did not understandand wanted to find out, so I decided to pursue research inthe field of American literature.My specialism is American literature and I am focusing ontwo main research topics at present. The first is Auster,whom I have continued to research since my graduationthesis. One of the distinctive features of his books is thatthe story begins in the aftermath of a loss, such as a majoraccident or the death of one or more family members. Mostof the characters have already lost the things that are mostimportant to them ? family, home, health ? at the beginningof the story. Regarding Auster’s literature as literature thatbegins in the aftermath of a loss, I have revealed throughmy research to date the self-awareness, historicalawareness, and sense of community of people who haveexperienced loss. I am currently writing a criticalbiography of Auster, gathering material at Americanlibraries that have his precious manuscripts in theircollection. My intention is that it should provide anoverview of my studies of Auster over the last dozen or soyears.Through my research, I have also learned a lot about otherworks of American literature and I have noticed thatnumerous incidents involving money received as a result ofloss ? insurance payouts, inheritances, and the like ?feature in American literary works. This triggered myAmerican Literature through An Attempt at a Cross-Disci AHighlight of Recent Research▲“City of Glass (1985)” by Paul Auster whichtriggered her interest to further pursue research inthe field of American literature▲Research on American literature from thecross-disciplinary perspectives of the Americaneconomy and philosophy of finance