Writing Japonisme: Aesthetic Translation in Nineteenth-Century French Prose

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, French visual artists began incorporating Japanese forms into their work. The style, known as japonisme, spanned the arts.

Identifying a general critical move from a literal to a more metaphoric understandingand presentation of japonisme, Pamela A. Genova applies a theory of aesthetic translation to a broad response to Japanese aesthetics within French culture. She crosses the borders of genre, field, and form to explore the relationship of Japanese visual art to French prose writing of the mid- to late 1800s. Writing Japonisme focuses on the work of Edmond de Goncourt, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Emile Zola, and Stephane Mallarme as they witnessed, incorporated, and participated in an unprecedented cultural exchange between France and Japan, as both creators and critics. Genova’s original research opens new perspectives on a fertile and influential period of intercultural dynamics.