The AJLS welcomes paper and panel proposals that explore the issue of writing in Japan. From the early choice to overlay the indigenous spoken language with a linguistically unrelated script through Japan’s more recent interactions with western languages and new attitudes toward writing and self expression, Japanese writers have been forced time and again to confront the shifting cipher of "Japanese-ness." This is true for gender and political identity, as well as for class, style, and dialect. How does the writer, and how should we as interpreters, define " Japanese writing"? This conference aims at addressing these issues in works ranging from early records to contemporary texts by investigating the way language choice contributes to the creation of historical worlds and national identities.

Applicants are encouraged to submit proposals on related topics, including:

• How early writers defined themselves in relation to their native culture in choosing to compose in Chinese or Japanese
• The use of language in the construction of official and unofficial histories 
• The extent to which the polarization of Chinese and Japanese writing and the styles associated with them represent valid categories of writing in the Heian and medieval periods 
• The relationship between a chosen mode of discourse and its object 
• The interplay of gender and language choice 
• How traditional boundaries are contested in modern works
• How the introduction of technology and alternative means of publication push the borders of "writing" 
• How language defines and is defined by modernity
• The significance of writing in a foreign language for both the Japanese writer and the nation of Japan 
• The significance of non-Japanese who write in Japanese
• The role of translations both into and out of Japanese in redefining the boundaries of cultural property

By exploring these and other related topics, this conference will draw attention to the essential role that language plays in history and memory both within conventional discourses of the past and as challenges to them. Given our interest in the relationship between language and national identities, the organizers of this conference particularly encourage participation from scholars around the world.