Indra Levy works on modern Japanese literature, with a particular interest in the changes that took place in conceptions of language, style, gender and genre in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Attention to the pivotal role of translations into Japanese informs her work on the development of modern Japanese vernacular style as well as her current research on concepts and practices of comedy. She received her PhD in Japanese literature from Columbia University in 2001. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty in 2004, she taught at Rutgers University.
SHC Project
Can the Meiji Man Laugh?
Scholars have often approached humor as an index of national character, an idea that emerged in early 19th-century Europe as modern nation-states took form. Mindful of this history, Leve's research shifts the focus to late 19th and early 20th century Japan to ask how the formation of national consciousness transformed conceptions and practices of comedy, from high-brow literature and critical discourse to popular performance. Her project examines the emerging critical discourse on comedy and laughter, translation of key terms, concepts, and comic texts from Europe and America, and developments in comic fiction and performance during the Russo-Japanese war (1904–5).
