Senior Lecturer Japanese Programme
Associate Professor Roy Starrs specialises in Japanese literature, culture, and intellectual history; comparative literature, and culture.
Telephone: +64 3 479 9030
Office: Arts 3S12
Email: roy.starrs@otago.ac.nz
Teaching
JAPA242/342 Understanding Japanese Culture
ASIA101 Introducing Asia
ASIA301 Topics in Asian Studies
Assoc. Prof. Starrs is on research leave in semester one, 2019.
Research
Shinto and Buddhism in Japanese literature
Comparative study of Buddhist and Christian mysticism
Expressionism in Japanese and Western modernist art
Publications
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.
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.
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
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. (2017). Renga: A European poem and its Japanese model. Comparative Literature Studies, 54(2), 275-304.
Authored Book - Research
Starrs, R. (2011). Modernism and Japanese culture. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 344p.
Starrs, R. A. (1998). An Artless Art: The Zen Aesthetic of Shiga Naoya. London: Curzon Press, 1p.
Starrs, R. A. (1998). Soundings in Time: The Fictive Art of Yasunari Kawabata. London: Curzon Press, 256p.
Edited Book - Research
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2014). When the tsunami came to shore: Culture and disaster in Japan. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, 358p.
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2012). Rethinking Japanese modernism. Leiden, The Netherlands: Global Oriental, 549p.
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2011). Politics and religion in modern Japan: Red sun, white lotus. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 352p.
Starrs, R. (Ed.). (2004). Japanese cultural nationalism: At home and in the Asia Pacific. Kent, England: Global Oriental, 295p.
Starrs, R. A. (Ed.). (2002). Nations Under Siege: Globalization and Nationalism in Asia. New York: Palgrave, 330p.
Starrs, R. A. (Ed.). (2001). Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. Richmond, UK: Curzon Press, 393p.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Starrs, R. (2012). Japanese modernism reconsidered. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Rethinking Japanese modernism. (pp. 3-36). Leiden, The Netherlands: Global Oriental.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Starrs, R. (2009). Nashonarisuto toshite no Rafukadio Haan. In H. Sukehiro (Ed.), Haan no hito to shuhen. (pp. 608-630). Tokyo: Shinyosha.
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.
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
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
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.
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.
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.
Starrs, R. A. (2001). Introduction. In R. Starrs (Ed.), Asian Nationalism in an Age of Globalization. (pp. 19-35). Richmond, UK: Curzon Press.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 - Other
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.
Journal - Research Article
Starrs, R. (2017). Renga: A European poem and its Japanese model. Comparative Literature Studies, 54(2), 275-304.
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
Starrs, R. (2009). Politics and religion in Japan. Religion Compass, 3-4, 752-769. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-8171.2009.00163.x
Starrs, R. (2009). A devil of a job: Mishima and the masochistic drive. Angelaki, 14(3), 85-99. doi: 10.1080/09697250903407583
Starrs, R. (2006). Lafcadio Hearn as Japanese nationalist. Japan Review, 18, 181-213.
Starrs, R. A. (2001). Japan, Asia, and globalization. Japan Foundation Newsletter, XXVIII(Nos. 3 - 4), 13-18.
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 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
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
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].
Starrs, R. (2013). [Review of the book Zen masters]. Journal of Japanese Studies, 39(1), 138-142. doi: 10.1353/jjs.2013.0008
Starrs, R. (2012). [Review of the book Imperial Japan at its zenith: The wartime celebration of the empire's 2,600th anniversary]. Pacific Affairs, 85(3), 647-649. [Book Review].
Starrs, R. (2012). [Review of the book Tokyo in transit: Japanese culture on the rails and road]. Japanese Language & Literature, 46(1), 79-82. [Book Review].
Starrs, R. (2012). [Review of the book Routledge handbook of Japanese culture and society]. Asia Pacific World, 3(1), 148-149. doi: 10.3167/apw.2012.030109
Starrs, R. (2011). [Review of the book The aesthetics of Japanese fascism]. Journal of Japanese Studies, 37(1), 174-179.
Starrs, R. (2009). [Review of the book Japan's holy war: The ideology of radical Shintō ultranationalism]. Journal of Church & State, 51(3), 526-528. doi: 10.1093/jcs/csp089
