Erik Lofgren

Education

• Ph.D., 1999 Stanford University, Modern Japanese Literature
• M.A., 1992 Indiana University, Bloomington, Modern Japanese Literature
• B.A., 1982 Oberlin College, History and Economics

Focus

• Japanese language, literature, and film

Teaching Interests

• Japanese language
• Modern Japanese literature
• Representation of desire in Japanese film
• Film adaptations

Recent and Representative Publications

Current projects:

• An anthology of Natsume Sōseki’s haiku
• Godzilla’s changing role as metaphor
• Adaptation
• Translation

Selected Publications

Sōseki Natsume’s Collected Haiku: 1,000 Verses From Japan’s Most Popular Writer. Charles Tuttle Publishing, 2025.

"Metafiction, Lexical Ostentation, and Censorship in Umezaki Haruo's 'B-tō fūbutsushi.'" LIT: Literature Interpretation Theory 34.4 (2023).

"Godzilla and Rodin's The Gates of Hell." East Asian Journal of Popular Culture 7.2 (2021): 271–87.