Civilization and monsters

"Monsters, ghosts, the supernatural, the fantastic, the mysterious. These are not usually considered the "stuff" of modernism. More often they are regarded as inconsequential to the study of the modern or, at best, seen as representative of traditional beliefs that are overcome and left behind in the transformation toward modernity. In Civilization and Monsters Gerald Figal asserts that discourse on the fantastic was at the heart of the historical configuration of Japanese modernity -- that the representation of the magical and mysterious played an integral part in the production of modernity beginning in Meiji Japan (1868-1912). After discussing the role of the fantastic in everyday Japan at the eve of the Meiji period, Figal draws new connections between folklorists, writers, educators, state ideologues, and policymakers, all of whom crossed paths in a contest over supernatural terrain. He shows the ways in which a determined Meiji state was engaged in a battle to suppress, denigrate, manipulate, or reincorporate folk belief as part of an effort toward the consolidation of a modern national culture. Modern medicine and education, functioning as a means for the state to exercise i