"Skillfully blending literary, philosophical, historical, and economic issues, Ikuho Amano's exploration of Japanese decadence is groundbreaking and compelling. This brilliant analysis of non-productive, subversive labor as resistance to mainstream social and aesthetic values highlights new fascinating connections between European and Japanese modernity...a crucial reading for anyone interested in East-West literary and cultural relations." - Nicoletta Pireddu, Associate Professor of Italian ... Read moreand Comparative Literature, Georgetown University, USA "This book is an exceptionally fine study of how decadence as a theme can be understood as a counter trope to the major aesthetic currents (including collectivity and conformity) that dominate twentieth century Japanese fiction. Ikuho Amano's brilliant, close readings - buttressed by a wealth of references to Japanese literary-critical discourse and contemporary Western literature and theory - and rediscovery of some important but neglected works of fiction portrays modern Japanese fiction in an entirely new light." - Leith Morton, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, and author of The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature 'Ikuho Amano's study of Decadence is a contemporary genealogy of 'useless men' in a modern efficiency-driven economy. It will be of interest to all scholars of modern Japanese culture, transculturation, and intercultural studies.' - Regenia Gagnier, Professor of English, University of Exeter, UK and author of Individualism, Decadence and Globalization Show Less