Binding a Universe: The Formation and Transmutations of the Best Japanese SF (Nenkan Nihon SF Kessakusen) Anthology Series

• Main Author: Hirao, Akiko
• Other Authors: Freedman, Alisa
• Language: en_US
• Published: University of Oregon 2016
• Subjects: contemporary literature; EnJoe; Toh; Genre studies; Popular fiction; Posthumanism; Project Itoh
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1794/20723

The annual science fiction anthology series The Best Japanese SF started publication in 2009 and showcases domestic writers old and new and from a wide range of publishing backgrounds. Although representative of the second golden era of Japanese science fiction in print in its diversity and with an emphasis on that year in science fiction, as the volumes progress the editors’ unspoken agenda has become more pronounced, which is to create a set of expectations for the genre and to uphold writers Project Itoh and EnJoe Toh as exemplary of this current golden era. This thesis analyzes the context of the anthology series’ publication, how the anthology is constructed, and these two writers’ contributions to the genre as integral to the anthologies and important to the younger generation of writers in the genre.