Faculty & Instructors

Biography

Elsa Chanez received her PhD in Japanese Language and Literature from Washington University in St. Louis. She holds a master’s degree in Asian Studies and a Bachelor of Arts with a minor in Anthropology from the University of British Columbia. Her research investigates transborder contacts between Japan and France and their influence on modern Japanese women writers who moved to and from France, such as Takahashi Takako, Ogino Anna, and Kanehara Hitomi. Their works present spaces of encounter for cultural, linguistic, and stylistic exchanges beyond romanticized depictions of an imagined, exoticized France. This project was supported by the Japan Foundation, which allowed her to conduct research in Japan at Keio University.

While developing this project into a manuscript, she is currently researching the works of the cartoonist Maekawa Eiko and the author Sekiguchi Ryōko, two Japanese artists who remained in France and whose works are more directed at French audiences. Further, inspired by her initial research on Ogino’s 2017 short story “Neko jya” (“It’s a Cat”), which is told from the point of view of a bakeneko, or a goblin cat, she is exploring the seemingly recent boom in cat literature in Japan and its use of cats as metaphors for and symbols of caretaking.

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• JPNS 213:  Adapting the Past in Japanese Media
• JPNS  219:  Japanese Mystery Fiction