JEA Lecture Series 1 “Eviction Notices: Writing (and Drawing) Pregnancy and Childbirth in Low-Fertility Japan”

Speaker: Prof. Amanda C. Seaman (University of Massachusetts Amherst)

Date: Wednesday June 5, 2019

Location & Time: KIBER 110 18:45-20:30

In this presentation I will talk about my recent book Writing Pregnancy in Low Fertility Japan (UHP 2017). This year as ever, the decline in the total fertility rate in Japan has been a topic of concern in Japanese newspapers as the number of babies born cause demographers and economists concerns about Japan’s future. In my book, I look at how some Japanese women have thought about the process of becoming pregnant and giving birth. I argue that the way of talking about pregnancy and childbirth has not changed markedly from the early twentieth century despite all the historical and economic changes. However, I note that with the increasing popularity of manga and new manga writers this narrative begins to change.

Biography

Amanda Seaman received her BA in East Asian Studies and Psychology from Wellesley College. After a year in Toyama Japan on the JET Program, she spent three years working for Fujisankei Communications International, doing advertising and product development for their Nintendo games division. She received her MA and PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2001. In 2003, she joined the faculty of Asian Languages and Literatures at UMass. She was the recipient of a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science research grant in 2007-2008, leading to the publication of her second book, Writing Pregnancy in Low-Fertility Japan (University of Hawai’i Press, 2017). Professor Seaman is a member of the Five College Steering Committee on Culture, Health and Science; her current research concerns representations of illness and affliction in contemporary Japanese literature, diaristic writing, manga, and film.

JEA Lecture Series Poster – Prof. Amanda C. Seaman