Samantha Audoly, Adjunct Professor at Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, stayed at Nichibunken as a JF-Nichibunken Fellow from October 2024 to October 2025. Her research concerned the role of Saikū and Sai’in literature in shaping the medieval depiction of women and the conception of male-female love relationships.  

Dr. Audoly received her PhD in Civilizations of Asia and Africa, specifically in premodern Japanese Literature, from Sapienza University of Rome. She has taught Japanese language and literature at several universities in Italy, including Sapienza University of Rome, the University for Foreigners of Perugia, the University of Bergamo, and the University of Bologna.

What sparked your interest in Japan, and how did you learn the Japanese language?

I became interested in Japan around the age of five, through anime broadcasts in Italy in the early 1990s, especially Haikara-san ga Tōru and Sasuke. Once I learned to read, I started buying books on Japanese culture and history, and in high school, I got into manga and Italian translations of novels by authors such as Murakami Haruki and Mishima Yukio.

I first started learning some kanji and basic grammar through online resources, but my real study began at university. I studied at Sapienza University of Rome, one of the most famous universities in Italy for its Japanese studies program. Unlike Venice and Naples, which also have Japanese studies, Rome has a dedicated department of Oriental studies. Our course, called Oriental Languages and Cultures, covered not only language and literature but also history, religion, art history, and philosophy related to both China and Japan.

Why did you choose to work on Heian period literature?

I have always been interested in culture as a whole, and I believe that what allows a culture to spread is its narrative, whether that is historical, literary, or indeed some other perspective. During my MA studies, I had an excellent professor of Japanese philology, and was struck by how the portrayal of male-female relationships and femininity in Heian period literature felt much more modern than I had expected. For my MA thesis, I focused on the differences in portrayal in the late Heian and early Kamakura periods.

When you were a student, did you have a chance to study in Japan?

During my MA, I participated in a one-week course called the MIRAI program, sponsored by MEXT. During my PhD, I won fellowships, including a three-week program in 2018 at Kōgakkan University in Ise, which was focused on Shinto and classical literature. I also participated in the Japan Foundation program for cultural and academic specialists, and stayed at the Kansai Center for six months in 2019-2020. After that, because of the pandemic, I had to return to Italy and couldn’t come back to Japan for almost three years. Now, I am a JF-Nichibunken Fellow, enjoying my longest stay in Japan yet, almost a full year.

Do you see any trends in the study of Japanese literature in Italy?

When I was a BA student, most people studied modern literature, and classical studies were quite rare. But by the time I started my PhD, many of my peers were actually working on classical Japanese texts, and now more researchers are focusing on classical literature. That said, we still have many great translators of modern novels. These days, most Japanese works are translated directly from the original, whereas for a long time, a lot of translations came into Italian via English or French. Now, some of those books have been re-translated, and the differences are plain to see.

What do you think is the challenge of teaching Japanese literature in Italy?

I think the main challenge is debunking the preconceptions students have. Before university, Italians rarely study anything about Japan, so their knowledge often comes from manga or anime. But this is not only a problem for Japanese literature. In Italian schools, up to high school, students only study the history of literature, without much critical analysis, unless they happen to have an exceptionally enlightened teacher. As a result, many students struggle to develop a critical approach.

In Japanese literature specifically, the biggest challenge is probably helping students move beyond a Eurocentric point of view. I remember once, when I was teaching modern Japanese literature, students were surprised to learn that many proletarian writers were Christian. They asked, “How is that possible?” In Italy, the common idea is that Christians are conservative, so I had to explain that in Japan at the time, Christianity was seen as a new religion that promoted equality, and it had a kind of socialist spirit. For them, that idea was completely unexpected.

What is your message for PhD students?

Although working in Japanese studies and in the humanities in general can be difficult, and it may get even harder with the way the world is going, I believe that what we do matters. The challenging and debunking of colonialist perspectives are vital for the world today. So, I would just say that, even if the path is hard, please keep going and stay strong. We need people who can understand other perspectives without imposing their own. This is especially important now, when the opposite trend seems to be reasserting itself. This is not very encouraging for our future.