Reflections of the Universe in us

Reflections of the Universe Within Us is a multi-layered dialogue between a generation of Czech and Slovak Japanologists and the work of Professor Zdenka Švarcová, who fundamentally shaped the field in the Czech Republic after 1989. The authors of this collective monograph – mostly students or long-term successors of Professor Švarcová's ideas – examine her seminal scholarly publication The Universe Within Us (1999) from a wide range of perspectives: from language and cognitive models through literary tradition to aesthetics, the history of thought, and sensory perception. The individual chapters reveal how the original semiotically and structurally inspired concept connects the Japanese language, literature, and culture into a surprisingly coherent whole. The book is not only a tribute to an exceptional figure in Czech Japanology but also a readable and informative guide to a world where language, culture, and human experience mirror one another.