#  Nathan Shockey (Bard College): "'Books Are Useless': Collecting, Excess, and Bibliophile Culture in Prewar Japan" (Fall 2023 George Parker Winship Lecture, co-sponsored by Harvard-Yenching Library and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies) 

 



####  calendar\_today Date and Time 

 **October 11, 2023** 

 05:30PM - 05:30PM EDT 

####  pin\_drop Location 

 **Edison and Newman Room, Floor 1, Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA 02138**  



 

 



 

[**Fall 2023 George Parker Winship Lecture**](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__harvard.us15.list-2Dmanage.com_track_click-3Fu-3D260659d604837f52d02968c77-26id-3Dd9573477f2-26e-3D470488d17f&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=HKPxmUdnYUKWMx8pouzTcDfH7LlrI74AKC20L52AMiE&m=ShKb8r36lv0y9USbFP_IMzatMNjTrTg_KJfkCGkZ7TNo48D-YeJ75MMqq0Z8UZbC&s=L-3wvPmodmJtie6ZGQ0W-2h1-EENAAc5NSCllHQb3wg&e=)  
Professor Nathan Shockey (Bard College) presents the Fall 2023 George Parker Winship Lecture. His talk explores changing attitudes towards the materiality of modern Japanese books in the early 20th century. Shockey describes how the expansion of the commercial book industry set off a speculators’ market for rare books, creating anxieties about commodification. At the same time, the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 reduced countless thousands of volumes to ash, prompting the critic Uchida Roan to champion the practice of over-accumulation and praise unread books as vectors for the transmission of knowledge and literary culture.  
  
Reception to follow. Co-sponsored by Harvard-Yenching Library and the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies.  
 

 

 



 

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