For those of you new to my blog, let me briefly introduce myself. My name is Dr. Mutsuko Takahashi, a researcher of English literature, and I study English literature mainly in the light of psychoanalysis.
I obtained my Ph.D. in the United States, and I have already completed the Ph.D. program in Japan as well. After completion of the Ph.D. program in Japan, I came to the U.S. for further study in global viewpoints. I have an MA in English both in Japan and the United States, and Ph.D. in the United States.
I already published a dissertation at the Japan Psychoanalytical Literary Studies Association and presented my research at academic conferences.
The journey of my academic interest has started from the Victorian female writers to the American Lost Generation writers and now been back to the Victorian writers, both female and male writers, for the following reasons.
I have reached an idea of what makes Victorian female writers special is the repression they had been suffered. This is why I'm attracted to their novels. My previous study in Japan focused on the psychoanalysis of the literary works written by the Victorian female writers. After I came to the United States, my academic interest has been directed to American Lost Generation literature since multicultural American life posed a question of identity to me. I had never faced this issue while I lived in Japan, an ethnically homogeneous island country surrounded by the sea that makes the country isolated from overseas countries.
For this reason, my Master's thesis in the United States was the study of the Lost Generation writers' novels focusing on the issues of identity. The works of the Lost Generation writers manifest that repression plays a major role in creating characters' inner struggles in the novels. We can also observe writers' inner conflicts of how they adapt the legacies of classics to the modern writings situated at the border of the transition period under the pressure of the new era.
For my Ph.D. dissertation, I came back to the Victorian novels. I'm interested in focusing on how repression affects creativity, and Victorian writers are important in terms of repression. Rereading the novels beyond gender issues, we will see that women are not the only victims of patriarchy. Therefore, my study focuses especially on female characters and domestic marginal male characters, such as second or third sons in patriarchy, in the Victorian novels.
My study deals with socio-economic cultural realities, including post-colonial issues and feminist issues as possible contentions within psychoanalytic domains; for, socio-economic and cultural realities override the personal travail whereas the psychological aspects are significant in character formation in novels.
As well as my specialization in literary studies, I have English teaching certification in both Japan and the United States: the national highest level of the English teaching certificate issued by the Ministry of Education in Japan and the SIT TESOL Certificate issued by SIT Graduate Institute in the United States.
Hopefully, you will enjoy reading my blog. Thanks for visiting, and have a great time!
