Eri Watanabe is a Japanese literary scholar and critic born in Kumamoto Prefecture and raised in Kagoshima Prefecture. She is a professor in the Graduate School of Humanities at Osaka University, specializing in modern Japanese literature, critical theory, and literature as a form of thought. Her work examines voices marginalized by discrimination and economic development and considers how literature can challenge dominant structures. In “Nakagami Kenji Ron,” she reinterprets the roji—the fictional space modeled on the discriminated Buraku community in Nakagami’s hometown—as a site of resistance to state power, capitalism, and redevelopment. The book received the 14th Association for Studies of Culture and Representation Award. “Torai suru Onnatachi” explores how Ishimure Michiko, Nakamura Kiiko, and Morisaki Kazue used oral testimony and collective literary activity to give expression to overlooked lives. Through these studies, Watanabe reconsiders literary history from the perspective of voices that have often remained unheard.
