David Barnett Lurie

Assistant Professor of Japanese History and Literature, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University (January 2002-present).

(For a pdf of an up-to-date CV click here.)
Education
B.A. in Literature from Harvard University (1993, magna cum laude); M.A. (1996) and Ph.D. (2001, with distinction) in Japanese Literature from Columbia University.
Selected Papers and Publications (for errata click here)
  • "The Subterranean Archives of Early Japan: Recently Discovered Sources for the Study of Writing and Literacy," in Books in Numbers, ed. Wilt Idema, Harvard-Yenching Library, 2007
  • "Man'yoshu no moji hyogen o kano ni suru joken (oboegaki)" (Notes on the Factors that Enable Expressive Inscription in the Man'yoshu), Kokugo to kokubungaku 84:11 (November 2007).
  • "Language, Writing, and Disciplinarity in the Critique of the 'Ideographic Myth': Some Proleptical Remarks," Language & Communication 26 (2006)
  • "Comparative Literacies of the Ancient World," organizer, participant, and chair of roundtable, American Historical Association Annual Meeting: Philadelphia, 6 January 2006
  • "Orientomology: The Insect Literature of Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)," in JAPANimals: History and Culture in Japan's Animal Life, ed. Gregory M. Pflugfelder and Brett L. Walker, University of Michigan Press, 2005.
  • Commentaries on Man'yoshu poems XI:2465 and XI:2495 in Seminaa Man'yo no kajin to sakuhin 12: Man'yo shukasho,  ed. Konoshi Takamitsu and Sakamoto Nobuyuki, Izumi shoin, 2005.
  • "The Author Formerly Known as Prince Shotoku: Royal Authority and Narratives of Literacy in Early Japan," paper delivered, Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting: Chicago, 3 April 2005.
  • "Nanaseiki no moji shiryo no atsukai ni tsuite" ("On the treatment of 7th century written sources"), paper delivered at the Fifth International Conference of the Japan Memory Project, Historiographical Institute, University of Tokyo, 9 July 2004.
  • "On the Inscription of the Hitomaro Poetry Collection: Between Literary History and the History of Writing," Man'yoshu kenkyu 26 (May 2004).
  • "A Tale of Two Turtles: Animal Omens and the Inscription of Time in Early Japan"; paper delivered, Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting: San Diego, 5 March 2004.
  • "Nara and Heian Writing/Reading Practices and the Foundations of Japanese Culture"; paper delivered, panel organizer for "Translation as Origin: A Transhistorical View of Japanese Writing," Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting: New York, 28 March 2003.
  • "Hitomaro kashu 'ryakutai' shoki ni tsuite: 'hitaiokun' ron no minaoshi kara," Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to kyozai no kenkyu 47:4 (March 2002). ("On 'Abbreviated Form' Inscription in the Hitomaro Poetry Collection: Rethinking the Theory of 'Non-equivalent Logographs'")
  • "The Origins of Writing in Early Japan: From the 1st to the 8th Century C.E." Columbia University Ph.D. Dissertation, 2001.
  • "Kangaku: Writing and Institutional Authority"; translation of Kurozumi Makoto, "Kangaku: sono shoki, seisei, ken'i," in Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature, ed. Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, Stanford University Press, 2001.
  • "The Preface to the Kojiki and Nara Period Writing Systems"; paper delivered, panel organizer for "Reading and Writing Nara Classics," Asian Studies Conference Japan: Tokyo, 25 June 2000.
  • "Writing and Reading Intertwined: From Chinese to Japanese Inscription"; paper delivered, panel organizer for "Some of Japans' Chinas: Text, Image, and Voice from the 7th to the 18th Centuries," Association of Asian Studies Annual Meeting: San Diego, 9 March 2000.
  • "Windows on Japanese Literature"; six-part monthly newspaper series introducing modern Japanese authors (Ibuse Masuji, Enchi Fumiko, Inoue Yasushi, Endo Shusaku, Abe Kobo, Ariyoshi Sawako) to English-speaking readers. Daily Mainichi: Tokyo, February-July 2000.
Research interests
  • History of writing systems
  • Cultural, intellectual, and literary history of early Japan
  • Development of reading systems and Japanese reception of Chinese texts
  • History of Japanese dictionaries and encyclopedias
  • Emergence of the hiragana and katakana syllabaries in 9th century Japan
  • Medieval and early modern commentaries on early Japanese texts
  • Early modern Japanese epigraphy and archaeology
  • History of Japanese linguistic thought
Contact Information
c/o Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
407 Kent Hall
Columbia University
New York NY 10027

(212) 854-5316; fax (212) 678-8629

DBL11@columbia.edu
 
 
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Page created 24 November 2001; revised 29 January 2008