Senior Lecturer Japanese Programme
Office Arts 3S12
Tel +64 3 479 9030
Email roy.starrs@otago.ac.nz
Associate Professor Roy Starrs specialises in Japanese literature, culture, and intellectual history; comparative literature, and culture.
Teaching
- JAPA 242/342 Understanding Japanese Culture
- JAPA 243/343 Issues in Japanese Culture Today
- JAPA 244/344 Modern Japanese Fiction
- ASIA 101 Introducing Asia
- ASIA 301 Topics in Asian Studies
Research
- Shinto and Buddhism in Japanese literature
- Comparative study of Buddhist and Christian mysticism
- Expressionism in Japanese and Western modernist art
Publications
Starrs, R. (2021). [Review of the book The rise and fall of modern Japanese literature]. Nihon Kenkyū, 62, 216-218. doi: 10.15055/00007647
Starrs, R. (2020). Suzuki Daisetsu no reikanron: Bunka o koeta dentatsu ni idomu. In Y. Shoji & J. Breen (Eds.), Suzuki Daisetsu: Zeno koete. (pp. 329-358). Kyoto: Shibunkaku.
Starrs, R. (2020). Mishima, Bowie and the anti-metaphysics of the mask. In J. Curcio (Ed.), Masks: Bowie and artists of artifice. (pp. 74-92). Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
Starrs, R. (2019). [Review of the book The rise and fall of modern Japanese literature]. Japan Review, 34, 238-239. doi: 10.15055/00007424
Starrs, R. (2018). The Tokyo gas attack was Japan's 9/11. Fair Observer, 11 July. Retrieved from https://www.fairobserver.com/region/asia_pacific/tokyo-gas-attack-aum-shinrikyo-executions-japan-news-this-week-16521/
Starrs, R. (2011). Modernism and Japanese culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 344p.
Authored Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (1998). An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetic of Shiga Naoya. London: Curzon Press, 1p.
Authored Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (1998). Soundings in Time: The Fictive Art of Yasunari Kawabata. London: Curzon Press, 256p.
Authored Book - Research
Starrs, R. (1994). Deadly dialectics: Sex, violence, and nihilism in the world of Yukio Mishima. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press, 288p.
Authored Book - Research
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2014). When the tsunami came to shore: Culture and disaster in Japan. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 358p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2012). Rethinking Japanese modernism. Leiden, The Netherlands: Global Oriental, 549p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2011). Politics and religion in modern Japan: Red sun, white lotus. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 352p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2004). Japanese cultural nationalism: At home and in the Asia Pacific. Kent, England: Global Oriental, 295p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (Ed.). (2002). Nations Under Siege: Globalization and Nationalism in Asia. New York: Palgrave, 330p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (Ed.). (2001). Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 393p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2020). Mishima, Bowie and the anti-metaphysics of the mask. In J. Curcio (Ed.), Masks: Bowie and artists of artifice. (pp. 74-92). Bristol, UK: Intellect Books.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2020). Suzuki Daisetsu no reikanron: Bunka o koeta dentatsu ni idomu. In Y. Shoji & J. Breen (Eds.), Suzuki Daisetsu: Zeno koete. (pp. 329-358). Kyoto: Shibunkaku.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2018). Japan's perennial new man: The liberal and fascist incarnations of Masamichi Rōyama. In J. Dagnino, M. Feldman & P. Stocker (Eds.), The "new man" in radical right ideology and practice, 1919-1945. (pp. 193-214). London, UK: Bloomsbury.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2018). Japanese poetry and the aesthetics of disaster. In A. M. Nguyen (Ed.), New essays in Japanese aesthetics. (pp. 285-298). Lanham, MD: Lexington Books.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2016). La estética Zen de Muga (Ni-Ego) en el proyecto Renga de Octavio Paz. In R. Guedea (Ed.), Países en tránsito: Estudios de literatura comparada. (pp. 81-101). Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2014). Cultural responses to disaster in Japan. In R. Starrs (Ed.), When the tsunami came to shore: Culture and disaster in Japan. (pp. 1-20). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2014). Anonymous: Kojiki [Record of ancient matters]. In The literary encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. Retrieved from http://www.staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=35240
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2012). Japanese modernism reconsidered. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Rethinking Japanese modernism. (pp. 3-36). Leiden, The Netherlands: Global Oriental.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2011). From Mishima to aum: Religio-political violence in late twentieth-century Japan. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Politics and religion in modern Japan: Red sun, white lotus. (pp. 240-277). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2011). Introduction: Politics and religion in Japan. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Politics and religion in modern Japan: Red sun, white lotus. (pp. 1-27). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2011). Prince Shōtuku and Japan's ‘China complex’. In J. Fengyuan, L. Jinghua & S. Bouterey (Eds.), Cultural interactions and interpretations in a global age. (pp. 29-39). Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2010). Naoya Shiga. In The literary encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. Retrieved from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12901
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2009). Masatomo [Monkey and Crabs ]; Ichiriki [Katatasu muri (snail)]; Maker Unknown [Okami to uchikubi (A wolf with a chopped human head)]. In R. Notman & L. Cullen (Eds.), Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. (pp. 94). Dunedin, New Zealand: Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2009). Nashonarisuto toshite no Rafukadio Haan. In H. Sukehiro (Ed.), Haan no hito to shuhen. (pp. 608-630). Tokyo: Shinyosha.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2008). Ink traces of the dancing calligraphers: Zen-Ei Sho in Japan today. In H. Johnson & C. Jerry Jaffe (Eds.), Performing Japan: Contemporary expressions of cultural identity. (pp. 11-33). Folkestone, UK: Global Oriental.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2008). Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972). In The literary encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. Retrieved from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12091
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2008). Yukio Mishima (1925-1970). In The literary encyclopedia. The Literary Dictionary Company. Retrieved from http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12197
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2006). Shintō versus Buddhism in the late work of Mishima Yukio. In L. Jinghua, K. Henshall & X. Hong (Eds.), Ethnic identities and linguistic expressions: Languages, literatures and cultural interaction in an age of globalization. (pp. 306-324). Beijing, China: Peoples Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2004). Introduction. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Japanese cultural nationalism: At home and in the Asia Pacific. (pp. 1-22). Kent, England: Global Oriental.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2004). Nation and region in the work of Dazai Osamu. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Japanese cultural nationalism: At home and in the Asia Pacific. (pp. 88-98). Kent, England: Global Oriental.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2001). Girisha to Indo no aida de: bunka-teki junreisha toshite no Mishima Yukio. In T. Inoue (Ed.), Sekai no Naka no Mishima Yukio. (pp. 95-113). Tokyo: Bensei Publishers.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2001). Introduction. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. (pp. 19-35). Richmond, UK: Curzon Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2001). The Sea of Fertility as a National-Historical Novel. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. (pp. 347-358). Richmond, UK: Curzon Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2000). Girisha to Indo no aida: bunkateki junreisha toshite no Mishima. In T. Inoue, T. Matsumoto & H. Sato (Eds.), Sekai no naka no Mishima Yukio. (pp. 95-113). Tokyo: Bensei Shuppan.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (2000). In search of the great Meiji novel: from Ukigumo to Yoake mae. In V. Mackie, A. Skoutarides & A. Tokita (Eds.), Coloniality, Postcoloniality and Modernity in Japan. (pp. 197-217). Clayton: Monash Asia Institute.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. A. (1998). Writing the National Narrative: Changing Attitudes Towards Nation-Building Among Japanese Writers, 1900-1930. In S. Minichiello (Ed.), Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930. (pp. 206-227). Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.
Chapter in Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2006). An artless art, a selfless self [Shiga Naoya (1883-1971)] [Reprint from An artless art: The Zen aesethetic of Shiga Naoya, a critical study with selected translations, pp. 84-117. Surrey, England: Japan Library, 1998]. In T. J. Shoenberg & L. J. Trudeau (Eds.), Twentieth-century literary criticism. (pp. 221-236). Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale.
Chapter in Book - Other
Starrs, R. (2017). Renga: A European poem and its Japanese model. Comparative Literature Studies, 54(2), 275-304.
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2011). Zen, Japan and the art of democracy. New Statesman, (7 July). Retrieved from http://www.newstatesman.com/asia/2011/07/japan-essay-nature-earthquake
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2009). A devil of a job: Mishima and the masochistic drive. Angelaki, 14(3), 85-99. doi: 10.1080/09697250903407583
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2009). Politics and religion in Japan. Religion Compass, 3-4, 752-769. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00163.x
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2006). Lafcadio Hearn as Japanese nationalist. Japan Review, 18, 181-213.
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. A. (2001). Japan, Asia, and globalization. Japan Foundation Newsletter, XXVIII(Nos. 3 - 4), 13-18.
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. A. (1997). Nation and tradition in postwar Showa fiction (1945-1970). New Zealand Journal of East Asian Studies, 5(1), 42-66.
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2021). [Review of the book The rise and fall of modern Japanese literature]. Nihon Kenkyū, 62, 216-218. doi: 10.15055/00007647
Journal - Research Other
Starrs, R. (2019). [Review of the book The rise and fall of modern Japanese literature]. Japan Review, 34, 238-239. doi: 10.15055/00007424
Journal - Research Other
Starrs, R. (2018). [Review of the book The culture of the quake: The great Kanto earthquake and Taishō Japan]. Journal of Japanese Studies, 44(1), 203-207. doi: 10.1353/jjs.2018.0023
Journal - Research Other
Starrs, R. (2017). [Review of the book Disasters and Social Crisis in Contemporary Japan: Political, Religious, and Sociocultural Responses]. Japanese Studies, 37(2), 276-278. doi: 10.1080/10371397.2017.1328965
Journal - Research Other
Starrs, R. (2014). [Review of the book The Japanese effect in contemporary Irish poetry]. New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 16(1), 132-133. [Book Review].
Journal - Research Other
Starrs, R. (2013). [Review of the book Zen masters]. Journal of Japanese Studies, 39(1), 138-142. doi: 10.1353/jjs.2013.0008
Journal - Research Other