616 Serra St., S328
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

mfoster@stanford.edu
(650) 724-4704 (voice)
(650) 725-2592 (fax)

Research Interests
Japan

Michael Dylan Foster is Assistant Professor of Japanese and Comparative Literature in the Department of Comparative Literature & Foreign Languages at the University of

California, Riverside

Ph.D. in Japanese from the Department of Asian Languages, Stanford University, 2003

M.A. Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1995

Foster's field of specialization is Japanese literature and cultural studies, with a particular focus on folklore and popular culture. His present book project traces how notions of the supernatural and "monsters" known as yôkai are articulated both in academic discourses and popular practices from the seventeenth century through the present. Other research interests include the development of encyclopedic and natural history discourse during the Edo period, early-modern and contemporary urban legends, and a cultural history of hypnosis in Japan. By focusing on notions and narratives of the "supernatural," Foster's work explores representations of the weird (both corporeal and otherwise), the transcendence of normative classification systems, and the many modes by which humans attempt to articulate the inexpressible.

While at Stanford, Foster plans to focus on a new project concerning the trope of the "stranger" in Japanese folklore, literature, and academic writing from the Tokugawa period through the present. In order to explore cultural and historical meanings accruing to "visiting deity" and "outsider" figures, the project will also consider a number of contemporary village festivals and performances through their relationship with ethnography and tourism.