Franz Prichard's ambitious book queries the proliferation of texts and images concerned with urbanization in Japan during an era of high economic growth. Addressing a broad array of visual and literary material, Prichard considers depictions of city and suburban spaces, finding in such representations an index of the shifting sands of Cold War–era power relations and their inscription within the environment. Through these works, Prichard asks, how can a city be read?
Residual Futures is an important contribution to a growing debate that, in addressing the intersection of cultural production and politics in the aftermath of the Anpo struggle, has identified the changing environment as a key concern for artists and intellectuals. Prichard significantly broadens this discussion, both temporally and in his selection of objects, by relying on the notion of representation to draw a transmedial field of inquiry; the study is thus bookended by discussions of film, literature,...
