Linda M. Flores

Associate Professor of Japanese I Course Coordinator for Japanese I Vicegerent and Tutorial Fellow in Japanese at Pembroke College 
linda.flores@ames.ox.ac.uk

Faculty / College Address:

Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies / Nissan Institute for Japanese Studies / Pembroke College

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Research Interests:

  • Literature after the Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster 

  • Japanese Trauma Fiction 

  • Women’s Writing 

  • Gender Theory 

  • Comparative Literature 

Courses Taught:

  • Modern Japanese Literature in Translation (lecture series) 

  • Unseen Translation (3rd years) (lecture series) 

  • Special Texts: Gender and Identity in Modern Japanese Literature 

  • Special Texts: Trauma and Narrative in Modern Japanese Literature 

  • Special Subject: Modern Japanese Literature (late Edo to Taisho) 

  • Special Subject: Modern Japanese Literature (Showa to the present) 

  • Socio-ecocritical Approaches to Modern Japanese Literature (MSc/MPhil in Japanese Studies) 

  • Modern East Asia Survey Course (participating lecturer) 

Current Projects:

  • Tohoku literary and cultural productions after the  

  • Great East Japan Earthquake Disaster 

Biography: 

Professor Linda Flores is an Associate Professor in Modern Japanese Literature and the Course Coordinator for Japanese in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AMES). She is also the Vicegerent and Fellow in Japanese Studies at Pembroke College. She teaches on the BA in Japanese in the AMES faculty as well as on the MSc/MPhil for Japanese Studies. Her areas of expertise include: Japanese women writers, gender theory, trauma fiction, and contemporary Japanese literature. Her publications have addressed topics such as the intersection of class and gender as well as motherhood and the family. Her recent work has focused on literature after ‘3.11’, the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011. At present, she is researching historical memory and the construction of a regional identity in post-3.11 literary and cultural productions (fiction, manga, anime and film) from the Tohoku region. Professor Flores convenes Pembroke’s Tanaka Symposium in Japanese Studies, an event which draws together international scholars and writers to discuss current topics in the fields of Japanese studies, particularly literature and history.  

Professor Flores has held various roles within the faculty, college and the central university. She served as Oxford's Junior Proctor during the academic year 2022-2023. At present, she is the Course Coordinator for the Japanese programme and Chair of the Japanese-Korean subject group. Professor Flores is the current Vicegerent at Pembroke College.  

 

Recent and Forthcoming Events:

 

Recent Publications: 

  • Flores, Linda. “Reading heterotopian spaces in Murata Sayaka’s Convenience Store Woman.” Japan Forum, 37 (5), 710–727 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2025.2515886 

  • Flores, Linda and Garcin, Thomas. ‘Introduction: “Other Spaces” and Dark Places: Reading Heterotopia in Japanese Literature and Culture.” Japan Forum, 37(5), 593–598 (2025).  https://doi.org/10.1080/09555803.2025.2571598 

  • Flores, Linda, and Barbara Geilhorn, eds. Literature after Fukushima: From Marginalized Voices to Nuclear Futurity. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2023. 

  • Flores, Linda, “From That Day Forward: Tōhoku, 3.11, and ‘Memory Landscapes’”, in Linda Flores and Barbara Geilhorn, eds., Literature after Fukushima : From Marginalized Voices to Nuclear Futurity. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2023. 

  • Flores, Linda and Barbara Geilhorn, “Literature after Fukushima: An Introduction”, in Linda Flores and Barbara Geilhorn, eds., Literature after Fukushima : From Marginalized Voices to Nuclear Futurity. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2023. 

  • Flores, Linda M. “Re-imagining Japan after Fukushima by Tamaki Mihic”. The Journal of Japanese Studies 48.1 (2022) (Review article). 

  • Flores, Linda, “Takahashi Takako no Sora no hate made to Moriakku no Terezu Dekeru” in Noami Mariko, ed., Sekai bungaku to Nihon bungaku. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 2019. 

  • Flores, Linda. “Kouno Fumiyo's Hi No Tori (‘Bird of the Sun’) Series as Documentary Manga: Memory and 3.11.” Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance 12 (2019). 

  • Flores, Linda. “In Her Footsteps: The Legacy of Professor Mizuta Noriko.” Review of Japanese Culture and Society 30 (2018). 

  • Flores, Linda and Bullock, Julia, Guest Editors. Scholar, Poet, Educator: Festschrift Issue in Honor of Mizuta Noriko, Review of Japanese Culture and Society 30 (2018). https://fivebooks.com/best-books/modern-japanese-literature-linda-flores Interview: ‘The Best Modern Japanese Literature recommended by Linda Flores’ (2018). 

  • Flores, Linda. “Matrices of Time, Space and Text: Intertextuality and Trauma in Two 3.11 Narratives.” Japan Review 31 (2017): Vol.31. 

  • Flores, Linda. “Narrating Trauma in Takahashi Takako's ‘Sora No Hate Made’: Perverse Motherhood.” Intersections: Gender and Sexuality in Asia and the Pacific (2017). 

  • Flores, Linda. “War Brides as Transnational Subjects in Mori Reiko’s ‘The Town of the Mockingbird’.” Ca'Foscari Japanese Studies (2017).