Hirano Keiichirou is an award-winning, contemporary Japanese author. He experiments with many styles, and his novels explore a broad range of themes and social issues. Unfortunately, little of his work is available in English translation, and he remains largely unknown to English-reading audiences. This thesis includes a brief overview of Hirano's career as well as translations and analyses of two of his short stories, "Tojikomerareta shounen" ("Trapped," 2003) and "Hinshi no gogo to namiutsu iso no osanai kyoudai" ("A Fatal Afternoon and Young Brothers on a Wave-swept Shore," 2003). These two stories are representative of the second period of Hirano's career, in which he focused on short fiction. They integrate experimental literary styles with contemporary, real-life themes to create effective, resonant literature.

This paper explores the development of newspapers and serialized novels in Meiji era Japan (1868 - 1912). A theoretical discussion of the role of newspapers in the evolution of culture and society provides background for an analysis of the history and development of the newspaper in Japan. The primary focus is on the rapid development of newspapers and their contribution to the extensive changes in society during the Meiji period. Newspapers both contributed to and were influenced by the development of Japanese society. Finally, the paper applies the theoretical understanding and historical perspective to the analysis of two Meiji serialized novels, one from the beginning of Meiji and one from the end of the era. These novels reveal that Meiji Japan was concerned with creating a general public and establishing an image of a "Japanese nation" that had not previously existed. Takahashi Oden yasha monogatari (1878-1879), by Kanagaki Robun (1829 - 1894), shows how society excluded groups in order to strengthen the majority of people's identification with Japanese society's norms at the beginning of Meiji. Kokoro (1914), by Natsume Souseki (1867 - 1916), uses the shared experience of the death of Emperor Meiji to pull all Japanese into an inclusive social group, and solidify the image of what it meant to be part of Japan in the modern era.