What can literary and artistic works reveal about their time – and how do they shape it? In her new book Terayama Shūji – Literat, Theatermacher, Filmregisseur. Zur Konstruktion seines Nachkriegsjapan im Zeichen globaler, nationaler und lokaler Verflechtungen, DIJ researcher Carolin Fleischer-Heininger explores the construction of postwar Japan through literary, dramatic, and cinematic works of Terayama Shūji (1935–1983). Her study considers the different spatial frames of reference – Aomori, Japan and the world – that guided Terayama’s views and analyses his works with regard to formal and stylistic characteristics. As she shows, Terayama shaped Japan’s cultural landscape by mirroring Japanese society and its narratives. Consequently, Terayama became one of Japan’s most influential and controversial cultural figures. Drawing on theories of globalization and cultural history, Fleischer-Heininger also examines how Terayama’s works negotiate narratives of national identity and historiography in postwar Japan.