| Office | SAB 112 |
| Summer Office Hours | By appointment |
| Office Tel. | 413-597-2513 |
| cbolton at williams.edu |
I teach Japanese literature and comparative literature at Williams College. Before coming to Williams in 2003, I taught for five years at the University of California, Riverside.
The courses I am currently teaching include a range of Japanese literature courses in translation, as well as classes on global literature and literary theory.
My research interests center on the modern period, particularly postwar and contemporary Japanese fiction and Japanese animation. Perhaps because my undergraduate training was in the sciences, I am intrigued by the intersection and interaction between science and literature. In more general terms, I am interested in the fuzzy boundaries of what we call literature, and the ways technology is forcing us to rethink those boundaries. This covers not only the line between literature and science, but the changing ways aesthetic theories have defined and delineated literature across times and cultures, the status of translations, adaptations, and reproductions vis-à-vis "original" works, and the relationship between writing and visual or media culture. Please follow the Book Projects link for a description of my books, or the CV link above for a more detailed list of my publications.
I am exploring digital texts for the ways they differ from earlier media and make us reconsider how we experience fiction. My recent work in this area includes a project to build a virtual art gallery--the Art Mecho Museum--inside the multi-user online world of Second Life.
A popular part of this site is "Japanese for Your Mac," which has information on working with Japanese on a Macintosh.