What is a family? The essays gathered here explore disparate family histories in early modern Japan, attending variously to the samurai elite, agrarian villagers, urban merchants, communities of out castes, and the circles surrounding priests, artists, and scholars. They draw on diverse sources—from population registers and legal documents to personal letters and diaries, from genealogies and…
A Table for One explores the links between female singlehood and social time, juxtaposing two theoretical fields that are rarely linked: the social study of time and the study of singlehood. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, this book paves the way for a new theorisation of singlehood which will put it at the fore of deconstructive critical thinking and on the feminist agenda. Although…