Edward Dorr Griffin Professor of Comparative Literature
Chair of the Comparative Literature Program
Williams College
Mailing Address: 85 Mission Park Drive, Williamstown, MA 01267
Office Tel: 413-597-2513
Office: Hollander Hall 310
Spring 2025 Office Hours: By appointment
Email: cbolton at williams.edu
I been teaching comparative and Japanese literature at Williams College since 2003. My research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese literature and visual culture, particularly prose fiction and animation.
My undergraduate training was in the sciences, and I am fascinated by the intersection and interaction between science and fiction, especially the fuzzy boundaries of what we call literature and the ways that technology prompts us to rethink those boundaries. One of my specific interests is the changing way aesthetic theories have delineated literature and criticism over time. Another interest is the relationship between different media technologies, and the status of adaptations and reproductions in modern and postmodern culture.
My books include Interpreting Anime (2018) and Sublime Voices: Science and Fiction in the Work of Abe Kōbō (2009). I have also co-edited many volumes of criticism focused on anime and Japanese popular culture: Robot Ghosts and Wired Dreams: Japanese Science Fiction from Origins to Anime (2007), and the first ten volumes of the University of Minnesota Press's Mechademia series, for work on Japanese anime, manga, and the fan arts (2006-2015).
At Williams I teach courses on Japanese literature and visual culture as well as classes on comparative literature and literary theory. In fall 2024 I am teaching a course on love and death in modern Japanese fiction and a tutorial on postmodernism. I'm on sabbatical in spring 2025.
I am exploring visual and digital media not only as objects of analysis but also as vehicles for my own critical work and teaching. In 2021–22 I curated Repro Japan, an art exhibition on Japanese popular culture at the Williams College Museum of Art. My earlier efforts have included a virtual art museum inside the multi-user online world of Second Life, and a short animated film introducing concepts in poststructuralist literary theory.
A popular section of this site is "Japanese for Your Mac," which has information about working with Japanese on Macintosh computers.
The anime section of this site contains detailed information about Interpreting Anime, my book on reading Japanese animated film.