William O. Gardner

This study examines how Japanese authors from 1960 through the present have explored the virtualization of contemporary life. It is divided into two pieces. The first examines imaginative renderings of the future city by both architectural theorists and literary authors, who increasingly conceive of the city in terms of simulation, generation, and flows of energy and information. The second investigates the virtualization of narrative subjects and literary texts, as authors explore a horizon of subjectivities outside of the physical body opened by new media and information technologies, as well as new modes of literary expression beyond the printed book.