George T. Sipos | West University of Timisoara (original) (raw)
Books (edited) by George T. Sipos
This book approaches the concept of tenkō (political conversion) as a response to the global cris... more This book approaches the concept of tenkō (political conversion) as a response to the global crisis of interwar modernity, as opposed to a distinctly Japanese experience in postwar debates.
Tenkō connotes the expressions of ideological conversion performed by members of the Japanese Communist Party, starting in 1933, whereby they renounced Marxism and expressed support for Japan’s imperial expansion on the continent. Although tenkō has a significant presence in Japan’s postwar intellectual and literary histories, this multi-authored volume is one of the first in English-language scholarship to approach the phenomenon. International perspectives from both established and early career scholars show tenkō as inseparable from the global politics of empire, deeply marked by an age of mechanical reproduction, mediatization and the manipulation of language. Chapters draw on a wide range of interdisciplinary methodologies, from political theory and intellectual history to literary studies. In this way, tenkō is explored through new conceptual and analytical frameworks, including questions of gender and the role of affect in politics, implications that render the phenomenon distinctly relevant to the contemporary moment.
Tenkō: Cultures of Political Conversion in Transwar Japan will prove a valuable resource to students and scholars of Japanese and East Asian history, literature and politics.
Journals (Editor/Guest Editor) by George T. Sipos
Annals of West University of Timisoara. Humanities Series, 2022
Guest Editor of Special Issue of Analele Universitatii de Vest din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filol... more Guest Editor of Special Issue of Analele Universitatii de Vest din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filologice (Annals of West University of Timisoara. Humanities Series).
https://analefilologie.uvt.ro/special-issue-modern-japan-2/?lang=en
Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies, 1999
The Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies (RJJS) is an open source, peer-review academic publicati... more The Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies (RJJS) is an open source, peer-review academic publication dedicated to Japanese studies and edited and published in Romania.
Due to financial difficulties, only two volumes were published to date, in 1999 and 2002, as part of the first series of the journal. A second series is in preparation, scheduled to begin publication in 2023.
RJJS was founded and edited by George T. Sipos, and published by the Japanese Language and Literature Section of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature of the University of Bucharest and the former Societatea Română de Niponologie (Romanian Society of Japanese Studies). The journal was mainly published in English, with contributions accepted in Italian, French, German or Romanian, accompanied by English abstracts. Initially planned as a yearly publication, RJJS faced financial challenges from its inception, and despite the editors’ efforts to keep it alive, the journal was forced to cease publication after Volume II.
The members of the editorial board for the first series of the journal were:
Founder & Editor: George T. Sipos, PhD (West University of Timisoara/Washington University in Saint Louis)
Stanca Scholz-Cionca, PhD (University of Trier)
Iulia Waniek, PhD (Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University)
To access the article archive of the first series of the journal, visit: http://rjjs.wordpress.com/
Journal Articles by George T. Sipos
Analele Universitatii din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filologice, 2022
Theory in Action, 2022
The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2 in an... more The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer
Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2
in an attempt to revisit its conventional
placement within the tradition of the modern Japanese literary
category of the shishōsetsu (approximately, I-novel). By briefly
exploring the very elements and definitions of the category itself, as
well as Dazai’s literary evolution, the article endeavors to understand
what led to the works of his final years life and to the change in
narrative techniques that makes those works Dazai’s best writings and
some of the most accomplished in modern Japanese literature.
Annals of West University of Timisoara (Humanities Series), Dec 2021
The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of ... more The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of the country's coming into modernity in the 19th century and slide into fascism and communism throughout the 20th century, as well as the subsequent ups and downs of the relationship with Japan. This research offers a brief overview of that sinuous path. It then focuses on the pre-and post-1990 reception of the works of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970, one of the iconic figures of Japan's postwar literature and exemplary for his continued trials and tribulations with modernity. By making use of scholarly and journalistic sources, the current incipient research provides several examples of the translation and reception of Mishima's works in Romania, as well as the extent to which his presence in this literary space has managed to permeate the psyche of Romanian scholars, literary critics and readers alike.
Romanian Journal of English Studies, 2021
This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanes... more This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanese writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) in his last complete novel, Ningen shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948). Although dubbed as “rubaiyat”, which would indicate that they are translations from the work of classical Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), the poems do not seem to match any of the known English translations from his work. This article explores the origin of the Japanese quatrains in Dazai’s novel, as well as their possible relevance for his literary work overall.
This dissertation explores the controversial topic of tenkō (“ideological conversion”) of mid-193... more This dissertation explores the controversial topic of tenkō (“ideological conversion”) of mid-1930s Japan, with focus on the tenkō literature, a corpus of literary narratives produced by those who underwent conversion or expressed themselves concretely in response to the pressures towards it. Caused by the state’s massive arrests, imprisonment, and other repressive measures, tenkō led not only to the Japanese Communist Party members’ mass defections from the party, but also to an irrevocable change within Japan’s modern intellectual history. With a larger view to addressing the often vexed relationship between state authorities and artists and intellectuals, this study conducts a historical and critical examination of the conditions and reception of tenkō, as well as of the characteristics of tenkō literature, and offers close readings of Nakano Shigeharu’s “Mura no ie” (House in the Village, 1934) and Sata Ineko’s Kurenai (Crimson, 1936).
The first half of the dissertation shows how the controversial category of tenkō and its literature has been tackled, gesturing to redefine the methodological terms for their study. It first historically maps out the ideological transformations of Japan’s Marxist movement from its first manifestations at the end of the 19th century until June 1933, when two key Japanese Communist Party leaders, Sano Manabu and Nabeyama Sadachika, publicly declared their tenkō. Through a critical survey of the large body of existing Japanese and English language studies dealing with the tenkō phenomenon, the first part shows the ways in which ideological understanding of tenkō has affected the reading and interpretation of the tenkō literature. The latter half of the dissertation is devoted to a close reading of the texts by Nakano and Sata. In order to carve out some new directions for the understanding of both chosen and the tenkō narratives at large, my analysis pays attention to the hitherto unnoticed or neglected aspects of “Mura no ie” and Kurenai. Thickly informed by the extensive grasp of the contexts of tenkō, my intensive re-reading of two of the most representative examples of Japanese tenkō literature points to the rich interpretative possibilities residing in those narratives of prewar Japan.
The resonances and lessons from Japan’s political, intellectual, and literary struggles with the external pressures towards ideological conversion, the dissertation ultimately argues, are far from exhausted by previous scholarship; Japanese tenkō literature holds a rich heuristic relevance for contemporary social and political affairs, awaiting new, comparative or global perspectives beyond the previous pale of exclusively Japanese contexts.
Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai: Philologia 3/2010, pp. 79-96, 2010
With the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941, Japan seemed to be in full charge of its conquests... more With the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941, Japan seemed to be in full charge of its conquests and older colonies, Taiwan, Manchuria and Korea. Used as the premise for a comparison between writings of Korean and Japanese female writers, Ch’oe Chŏnghŭi`s Nogikushō (The Wild Chrysanthemum) is the main text analyzed in this article. The authors her work is compared with on the Japanese side are Sata Ineko, Hayashi Fumiko and Yoshiya Nobuko. The question the current article is trying to answer is why there are no good texts for comparison with Ch`oe`s work and offer a couple of hypotheses.
日本文学文集/Nihon Bungaku bunshū, Jun 2005
シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれませ... more シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれません。勿論、プロレタリア文学運動は世界の中でどこでも労働階級から出 た作家たちばかりだというわけではありませんが、宮本のケースは特に珍しいと 言えます。宮本の文学活動をよく考察すれば二つの時代に分けられることが分か ります。その二つは１９２６年までのソビエト・ロシアに行く前の時代(いわゆ るプロレタリア文学者になる前)、もう一つは１９３０年の後のプロレタリア文 学者になった後の時代です。この論文では政治活動にあまり関心がなかった宮本 百合子がどうして共産主義者の作家になったかという過程を考察しようと思いま す。 宮本百合子はソ連への滞在をきっかけに１９３１年に秘密的に共産党員に なりましたが表向きにはプロレタリア文学運動のメンバーとして活躍しました。 百合子の夫の宮本顕示の『宮本百合子の世界』 1 という本によると彼女の ソビエト時代の変化の理由は三つあったそうです。一番目はソビエト・ロシアに おいて女性の生活と社会での役割が非常に尊重されていたことで、二番目は宮本 に精神的に非常に影響があった１９２８年の弟の自殺と日本社会は将来がないと 1 宮本賢治、『宮本百合子の世界』、新日本出版社、東京、１９６３
Virginia Review of Asian Studies, Nov 2002
Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies, 2002
Continent 1/1999, pp. 81-85, 1999
Contrapunct 1-2/1998, pp. 21-22, Jan 1998
Contrapunct 1-2/1998, pp. 20-21, Jan 1998
Book Chapters by George T. Sipos
Dazai Osamu, Decădere umană, 2024
Afterword to the Dazai Osamu volume of translations, Decădere umană ( Bucharest: Humanitas Fictio... more Afterword to the Dazai Osamu volume of translations, Decădere umană ( Bucharest: Humanitas Fiction, 2024), p. 339-349.
Liviu Rebreanu, Ciuleandra (Cadmus Press), 2021
Introduction to the English translation of Romanian modernist writer Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944)'s... more Introduction to the English translation of Romanian modernist writer Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944)'s 1927 psychological thriller Ciuleandra.
Tenkō: Cultures of Political Conversion in Inter-war Japan, 2021
This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its unde... more This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its underlying tropes and themes. Sipos offers a fresh look at tenkō literature and attempts a definition and classification of the literary works typically associated with tenkō based on the writers’ political experience and the subject of their narratives. While it is customary for tenkō literature works to be classified on whether the authors had truly committed to the ideological “conversion” or had done so declaratively to be freed from prison, Sipos takes a different approach. Switching the focus from the authors to the content and style of the literary pieces, he identifies two major thematic/narrative style groups within the tenkō literature category: those dealing with the topic of family and those utilizing the shishōsetsu (I-novel) literary convention, and focuses his attention on critical analyses of both groups.
Mishima monogatari: Un samurai delle arti, 2020
Translations and Reception of Mishima Yukio in Romania. In Teresa Ciapparoni La Roca (ed.), Mishi... more Translations and Reception of Mishima Yukio in Romania.
In Teresa Ciapparoni La Roca (ed.), Mishima monogatari: Un samurai delle arti, Turin: Edizioni Lindau, 2020. 205-214.
ISBN: 978-88-3353-466-4
This book approaches the concept of tenkō (political conversion) as a response to the global cris... more This book approaches the concept of tenkō (political conversion) as a response to the global crisis of interwar modernity, as opposed to a distinctly Japanese experience in postwar debates.
Tenkō connotes the expressions of ideological conversion performed by members of the Japanese Communist Party, starting in 1933, whereby they renounced Marxism and expressed support for Japan’s imperial expansion on the continent. Although tenkō has a significant presence in Japan’s postwar intellectual and literary histories, this multi-authored volume is one of the first in English-language scholarship to approach the phenomenon. International perspectives from both established and early career scholars show tenkō as inseparable from the global politics of empire, deeply marked by an age of mechanical reproduction, mediatization and the manipulation of language. Chapters draw on a wide range of interdisciplinary methodologies, from political theory and intellectual history to literary studies. In this way, tenkō is explored through new conceptual and analytical frameworks, including questions of gender and the role of affect in politics, implications that render the phenomenon distinctly relevant to the contemporary moment.
Tenkō: Cultures of Political Conversion in Transwar Japan will prove a valuable resource to students and scholars of Japanese and East Asian history, literature and politics.
Annals of West University of Timisoara. Humanities Series, 2022
Guest Editor of Special Issue of Analele Universitatii de Vest din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filol... more Guest Editor of Special Issue of Analele Universitatii de Vest din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filologice (Annals of West University of Timisoara. Humanities Series).
https://analefilologie.uvt.ro/special-issue-modern-japan-2/?lang=en
Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies, 1999
The Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies (RJJS) is an open source, peer-review academic publicati... more The Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies (RJJS) is an open source, peer-review academic publication dedicated to Japanese studies and edited and published in Romania.
Due to financial difficulties, only two volumes were published to date, in 1999 and 2002, as part of the first series of the journal. A second series is in preparation, scheduled to begin publication in 2023.
RJJS was founded and edited by George T. Sipos, and published by the Japanese Language and Literature Section of the Department of Oriental Languages and Literature of the University of Bucharest and the former Societatea Română de Niponologie (Romanian Society of Japanese Studies). The journal was mainly published in English, with contributions accepted in Italian, French, German or Romanian, accompanied by English abstracts. Initially planned as a yearly publication, RJJS faced financial challenges from its inception, and despite the editors’ efforts to keep it alive, the journal was forced to cease publication after Volume II.
The members of the editorial board for the first series of the journal were:
Founder & Editor: George T. Sipos, PhD (West University of Timisoara/Washington University in Saint Louis)
Stanca Scholz-Cionca, PhD (University of Trier)
Iulia Waniek, PhD (Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University)
To access the article archive of the first series of the journal, visit: http://rjjs.wordpress.com/
Analele Universitatii din Timisoara. Seria Stiinte Filologice, 2022
Theory in Action, 2022
The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2 in an... more The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer
Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2
in an attempt to revisit its conventional
placement within the tradition of the modern Japanese literary
category of the shishōsetsu (approximately, I-novel). By briefly
exploring the very elements and definitions of the category itself, as
well as Dazai’s literary evolution, the article endeavors to understand
what led to the works of his final years life and to the change in
narrative techniques that makes those works Dazai’s best writings and
some of the most accomplished in modern Japanese literature.
Annals of West University of Timisoara (Humanities Series), Dec 2021
The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of ... more The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of the country's coming into modernity in the 19th century and slide into fascism and communism throughout the 20th century, as well as the subsequent ups and downs of the relationship with Japan. This research offers a brief overview of that sinuous path. It then focuses on the pre-and post-1990 reception of the works of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970, one of the iconic figures of Japan's postwar literature and exemplary for his continued trials and tribulations with modernity. By making use of scholarly and journalistic sources, the current incipient research provides several examples of the translation and reception of Mishima's works in Romania, as well as the extent to which his presence in this literary space has managed to permeate the psyche of Romanian scholars, literary critics and readers alike.
Romanian Journal of English Studies, 2021
This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanes... more This article explores the source and the meaning of the eleven quatrains quoted by modern Japanese writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948) in his last complete novel, Ningen shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948). Although dubbed as “rubaiyat”, which would indicate that they are translations from the work of classical Persian poet and mathematician Omar Khayyam (1048-1131), the poems do not seem to match any of the known English translations from his work. This article explores the origin of the Japanese quatrains in Dazai’s novel, as well as their possible relevance for his literary work overall.
This dissertation explores the controversial topic of tenkō (“ideological conversion”) of mid-193... more This dissertation explores the controversial topic of tenkō (“ideological conversion”) of mid-1930s Japan, with focus on the tenkō literature, a corpus of literary narratives produced by those who underwent conversion or expressed themselves concretely in response to the pressures towards it. Caused by the state’s massive arrests, imprisonment, and other repressive measures, tenkō led not only to the Japanese Communist Party members’ mass defections from the party, but also to an irrevocable change within Japan’s modern intellectual history. With a larger view to addressing the often vexed relationship between state authorities and artists and intellectuals, this study conducts a historical and critical examination of the conditions and reception of tenkō, as well as of the characteristics of tenkō literature, and offers close readings of Nakano Shigeharu’s “Mura no ie” (House in the Village, 1934) and Sata Ineko’s Kurenai (Crimson, 1936).
The first half of the dissertation shows how the controversial category of tenkō and its literature has been tackled, gesturing to redefine the methodological terms for their study. It first historically maps out the ideological transformations of Japan’s Marxist movement from its first manifestations at the end of the 19th century until June 1933, when two key Japanese Communist Party leaders, Sano Manabu and Nabeyama Sadachika, publicly declared their tenkō. Through a critical survey of the large body of existing Japanese and English language studies dealing with the tenkō phenomenon, the first part shows the ways in which ideological understanding of tenkō has affected the reading and interpretation of the tenkō literature. The latter half of the dissertation is devoted to a close reading of the texts by Nakano and Sata. In order to carve out some new directions for the understanding of both chosen and the tenkō narratives at large, my analysis pays attention to the hitherto unnoticed or neglected aspects of “Mura no ie” and Kurenai. Thickly informed by the extensive grasp of the contexts of tenkō, my intensive re-reading of two of the most representative examples of Japanese tenkō literature points to the rich interpretative possibilities residing in those narratives of prewar Japan.
The resonances and lessons from Japan’s political, intellectual, and literary struggles with the external pressures towards ideological conversion, the dissertation ultimately argues, are far from exhausted by previous scholarship; Japanese tenkō literature holds a rich heuristic relevance for contemporary social and political affairs, awaiting new, comparative or global perspectives beyond the previous pale of exclusively Japanese contexts.
Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai: Philologia 3/2010, pp. 79-96, 2010
With the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941, Japan seemed to be in full charge of its conquests... more With the beginning of the Pacific War in 1941, Japan seemed to be in full charge of its conquests and older colonies, Taiwan, Manchuria and Korea. Used as the premise for a comparison between writings of Korean and Japanese female writers, Ch’oe Chŏnghŭi`s Nogikushō (The Wild Chrysanthemum) is the main text analyzed in this article. The authors her work is compared with on the Japanese side are Sata Ineko, Hayashi Fumiko and Yoshiya Nobuko. The question the current article is trying to answer is why there are no good texts for comparison with Ch`oe`s work and offer a couple of hypotheses.
日本文学文集/Nihon Bungaku bunshū, Jun 2005
シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれませ... more シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれません。勿論、プロレタリア文学運動は世界の中でどこでも労働階級から出 た作家たちばかりだというわけではありませんが、宮本のケースは特に珍しいと 言えます。宮本の文学活動をよく考察すれば二つの時代に分けられることが分か ります。その二つは１９２６年までのソビエト・ロシアに行く前の時代(いわゆ るプロレタリア文学者になる前)、もう一つは１９３０年の後のプロレタリア文 学者になった後の時代です。この論文では政治活動にあまり関心がなかった宮本 百合子がどうして共産主義者の作家になったかという過程を考察しようと思いま す。 宮本百合子はソ連への滞在をきっかけに１９３１年に秘密的に共産党員に なりましたが表向きにはプロレタリア文学運動のメンバーとして活躍しました。 百合子の夫の宮本顕示の『宮本百合子の世界』 1 という本によると彼女の ソビエト時代の変化の理由は三つあったそうです。一番目はソビエト・ロシアに おいて女性の生活と社会での役割が非常に尊重されていたことで、二番目は宮本 に精神的に非常に影響があった１９２８年の弟の自殺と日本社会は将来がないと 1 宮本賢治、『宮本百合子の世界』、新日本出版社、東京、１９６３
Virginia Review of Asian Studies, Nov 2002
Romanian Journal of Japanese Studies, 2002
Continent 1/1999, pp. 81-85, 1999
Contrapunct 1-2/1998, pp. 21-22, Jan 1998
Contrapunct 1-2/1998, pp. 20-21, Jan 1998
Dazai Osamu, Decădere umană, 2024
Afterword to the Dazai Osamu volume of translations, Decădere umană ( Bucharest: Humanitas Fictio... more Afterword to the Dazai Osamu volume of translations, Decădere umană ( Bucharest: Humanitas Fiction, 2024), p. 339-349.
Liviu Rebreanu, Ciuleandra (Cadmus Press), 2021
Introduction to the English translation of Romanian modernist writer Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944)'s... more Introduction to the English translation of Romanian modernist writer Liviu Rebreanu (1885-1944)'s 1927 psychological thriller Ciuleandra.
Tenkō: Cultures of Political Conversion in Inter-war Japan, 2021
This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its unde... more This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its underlying tropes and themes. Sipos offers a fresh look at tenkō literature and attempts a definition and classification of the literary works typically associated with tenkō based on the writers’ political experience and the subject of their narratives. While it is customary for tenkō literature works to be classified on whether the authors had truly committed to the ideological “conversion” or had done so declaratively to be freed from prison, Sipos takes a different approach. Switching the focus from the authors to the content and style of the literary pieces, he identifies two major thematic/narrative style groups within the tenkō literature category: those dealing with the topic of family and those utilizing the shishōsetsu (I-novel) literary convention, and focuses his attention on critical analyses of both groups.
Mishima monogatari: Un samurai delle arti, 2020
Translations and Reception of Mishima Yukio in Romania. In Teresa Ciapparoni La Roca (ed.), Mishi... more Translations and Reception of Mishima Yukio in Romania.
In Teresa Ciapparoni La Roca (ed.), Mishima monogatari: Un samurai delle arti, Turin: Edizioni Lindau, 2020. 205-214.
ISBN: 978-88-3353-466-4
in Frank Jacob, ed., Critical Insights: Modern Japanese Literature. Salem Press, 2017. 171-186.
in Frank Jacob, ed., Critical Insights: Modern Japanese Literature. Salem Press, 2017. 154-170.
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Viața unui prost. Bucharest: Curtea Veche, 2010. 153-161., 2010
Romanian translation of Dazai Osamu's 1948 novel Ningen shikkaku (No longer human, 1948), and of ... more Romanian translation of Dazai Osamu's 1948 novel Ningen shikkaku (No longer human, 1948), and of four other stories: Amintiri (Omoide, 1933), Eleva (Joseito, 1939), O sută de vederi ale muntelui Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei, 1939) and Opt scene din Tokyo (Tokyo hakkei, 1941). It includes an afterword, Osamu Dazai and the Terrible Burden of the Modern Human.
Timpul, 120/2013, pp. 14-15; 121/2013, pp. 14-15; 122/2013, pp. 14-15; 123/2013, pp. 14-15.; 124/2013, pp. 14-15;, Jan 2013
România literară, 26/2010, p. 20-21, Jul 2010
Timpul 79/2009, p. 11, Apr 2009
Iat\ ce-a povestit c\l\torul.
Timpul, 78/2009, pp. 10-11, Mar 2009
T`rgul Mizonokuchi se `ntindea dincolo de Futago, unde drumul de la Tokyo se intersecta cu R`ul T... more T`rgul Mizonokuchi se `ntindea dincolo de Futago, unde drumul de la Tokyo se intersecta cu R`ul Tama. ~n mijlocul t`rgului, un han: Kameya.
Timpul 77/2009, pp. 10-11, Feb 2009
Timpul 58/2007, p. 16, Mar 2007
TIMPUL 16 martie 2007 Globaliz\ri celulare Arjun Appadurai a a[teptat, cu r\bdare, timp de zece a... more TIMPUL 16 martie 2007 Globaliz\ri celulare Arjun Appadurai a a[teptat, cu r\bdare, timp de zece ani ca s\ `[i continue g`ndurile despre valorile contemporane ale mo-dernit\]ii. ~n 1996, a publicat Modernity at Large, o analiz\ aproape optimist\ a glo-baliz\rii, `n care nu existau `nvin[i [ì nving\tori. Exuberant, cu g`ndul la comu-nit\]i virtuale [i la obliterarea diferen]elor produc\toare de ur\ `ntre oameni, antropologul american ([i nu numai) se l\sa atunci purtat de valurile posibilului. Cum na]iunile `[i `ncheiaser\ menirea istoric\, alte forme de comunitate trebuiau s\ se nasc\, p\rea s\ ne sugereze atunci Appadurai. Nu [tia cum vor fi ele, poate doar virtuale, poate doar umane. Ne promitea, `ns\, atunci, nou\ celor care `l citeam cu sufletul la gur\, o ini]iere a unei serii despre globalizare. A trecut o decad\ `ntre timp. {i, `n bun spirit dialectic, `n continuarea seriei sale, optimista tez\ despre globalizare [i-a produs antiteza. Fear of Small Numbers e un eseu despre m`nie. Despre terorism, despre societatea uman\ a zilelor noastre `n care nevoia de migrare [i-a pierdut orice urm\ de aur\ mis-terioas\. C\l\torul romantic al `nceputurilor modernit\]ii s-a disipat `n amintire, iar cel postmodern nu mai porne[te la drum pentru a descoperi, ci pentru a m`nca. Pentru a-[i repara casa, sau cump\ra o ma[in\ mai mare, care s\ consume mai mult\ benzin\ [i s\ participe voios la distrugerea mai multor ur[i polari. Dorin]a de mai mult, de c`[tig material, devenit singura valoare pe care ò n]elegem, `i m`n\ acum din urm\ pe pribegii lumii globale. Appadurai vorbe[te despre o celulizare a societ\]ii contemporane, n care ne asociem `n grupuri mici, ne-bazate pe criterii etnice sau rasiale, ci pe multistratificate sub-clase sociale. Ne adun\m cu cei care s`nt ca noi ideologic, material, dar [i, cum altfel, rasial. Comunit\]i de interese, mai degrab\ dec`t geografice. {i cum suferim de crize identitare, cum consumul orbesc nu ne mai satisface nevoia de a nè n]elege pe noi `n[ine, iar privitul `n oglind\ nu ne mai reflect\ obrajii rotofei ai burghezului care a construit societatea modern\, ne cre\m identit\]i prin nega]ie. S`ntem prin ceea ce nu s`ntem. Obseda]i de o bau-drillardian\ identitate iluzorie, ne repezim s\ `i elimin\m pe cei care nu s`nt ca noi. Ne cre\m structurali[ti "al]i" pe care s\ `i putem elimina feroce, `ntr-un demers dement de c\utare a unei purit\]i identitare. Appadurai se opre[te la evenimentele din 11 septembrie din New York [i Washington DC, dar [i la atacuri teroriste sau violen]e locale. A[ mai ad\uga la lista lui [i noile legisla]ii puse `n practic\ de administra]ia american\, testele de cet\]enie din Olanda, legile (nu chiar at`t de noi) care fac aproape imposibil\ na]ionalizarea str\inilor `n Japonia. Iar dac\ adagiile mele vi se par a func]iona la nivel na]ional, ele nu protejeaz\, de fapt, dec`t un segment restr`ns al popula]iei. Spre celularizare tindem, aidoma grupurilor teroriste sus]ine Appadurai, iar puritatea celulelor noastre s`ntem gata s\ o ap\ram prin eliminarea "minorit\]ilor", a "numerelor mici" care nu ne satisfac propria identitate imaginat\. Am sa `nchei cu un scurt fragment din amara ditiramb\ `mpotriva postmodernismului a lui Terry Eagleton din volumul s\u After Theory, din 2003, care ne propune un exerci]iu anti-utopic orwellian, al acestor comunit\]i pe care Appadurai le nume[te acum "celule": "Nu e dificil s\ ne imagi-n\m comunit\]i afluente ale viitorului protejate de turnuri de paz\, proiectoare [i mitraliere, `n timp ce s\r\cimea caut\ de m`ncare `n pustiet\]ile din afara lor" (Terry Eagleton, After Theory. (New York: Basic Books. 2003) 22).
Timpul 56/2007, pp. 16-17, Jan 2007
Timpul. 55/2006, p. 17, Dec 2006
Timpul. 54/2006, p. 16, Nov 2006
România literară 25/2004, pp. 26-27, Jun 2004
Contrapunct 11-12/1999, pp. 52-53, 1-2/2000, pp. 52-53, and 3-5/2000, pp. 33-36, Nov 1999
Contrapunct 7-8/1999, pp. 36-37 and 9-10/1999, pp. 44-45, Jul 1999
Contrapunct 3-4/1999, pp. 22-24, and 5-6/1999, pp. 42-44, Mar 1999
România literară 49/1998, p. 22, Dec 1998
Contrapunct, 6-7/1998, p. 24-25, Jun 1998
România literară 44/1995, p. 14, Nov 1995
Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese Studies 74/2007. pp. 17-19, Apr 2007
Romania literara 46/2005, p. 28, Nov 2005
Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese Studies 65/2004, pp. 7-8, Feb 2004
Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese Studies 62/2003. pp. 8-10, Feb 2003
Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese Studies 56/2000, p. 23, Oct 2000
Dilema 322/2000, p. 15, Apr 2000
Bulletin of the European Association for Japanese Studies, 51/1999, pp. 27-28, Jun 1999
România literară 45/1998, p. 22, Nov 1998
Dreptatea 165/1997, p. 13, Dec 1997
Luceafărul 26/1997, p. 22, Jul 9, 1997
România literară 19/1997, p. 21, May 1997
România literară 5/1997, p. 21, Feb 1997
România literară 17/1995, p. 21, May 1995
Romanian Language Database of Japanese Studies is a digital open source reference tool for the ev... more Romanian Language Database of Japanese Studies is a digital open source reference tool for the ever-growing field of Japanese studies in Romanian.
Contributions of new records are always welcome.
Tenkō as a phenomenon has been explained in this panel by Brice Fauconnier, so I would like to co... more Tenkō as a phenomenon has been explained in this panel by Brice Fauconnier, so I would like to concentrate here on tenkō bungaku or literature. As you can see I choose, like many researchers before me not to translate the word tenkō into English. There are, as you may know, and as Brice has pointed out, several ways to translate the word into English. The reason for which I choose not to translate it here as "conversion" or "apostasy" or "defection" is not only because those do not capture the essence of the Japanese counterpart, as we usually hear when it comes to "un-translatable" terms. To a certain extent, all of those words do, in fact, capture various aspects of tenkō.
![Research paper thumbnail of 小説から全集まで：アメリカとルーマニアに於ける日本文学翻訳の現状 (From One Novel to Complete Works: Japanese Translations in the US and Romania) [in Japanese]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31157507/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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Nakano Shigeharu's novella "Mura no ie" (House in the Village, 1935) is one of the most celebrate... more Nakano Shigeharu's novella "Mura no ie" (House in the Village, 1935) is one of the most celebrated literary works of tenkō literature. Tenkō ("ideological conversion") is a socio-political phenomenon of prewar Japan, which took places roughly between 1927 and 1942. Under sustained pressure from state authorities, numerous public figures (politicians, artists, journalists, university professors) publicly denounced their previous political activities. Some of the most famous cases of tenkō are members of the Japan Communist Party. The writers among them, after being released from prison, began to write about the experience of tenkō. The texts they produced between 1934 and 1942 are known as tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature).
This paper is a close reading of the short story "House in the Village," and is focused on the possibility that the author may have used the literary conventions of shishōsetsu (Japan's autobiographical novel) in an attempt to communicate with his readership and convey to them his determination to continue his political fight despite his public tenkō the year before.
![Research paper thumbnail of 宮本百合子とその「転向」 (Miyamoto Yuriko and Her "Tenkō") [in Japanese]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/31157837/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれませ... more シポス・ジョージ 宮本百合子とその「転向」 １８９９年東京の知識人の家族に生まれた宮本百合子は彼女が属していた 階級から判断すればプロレタリア文学運動に参加していたとは想像しにくいかも しれません。勿論、プロレタリア文学運動は世界の中でどこでも労働階級から出 た作家たちばかりだというわけではありませんが、宮本のケースは特に珍しいと 言えます。宮本の文学活動をよく考察すれば二つの時代に分けられることが分か ります。その二つは１９２６年までのソビエト・ロシアに行く前の時代(いわゆ るプロレタリア文学者になる前)、もう一つは１９３０年の後のプロレタリア文 学者になった後の時代です。この論文では政治活動にあまり関心がなかった宮本 百合子がどうして共産主義者の作家になったかという過程を考察しようと思いま す。 宮本百合子はソ連への滞在をきっかけに１９３１年に秘密的に共産党員に なりましたが表向きにはプロレタリア文学運動のメンバーとして活躍しました。 百合子の夫の宮本顕示の『宮本百合子の世界』 1 という本によると彼女の ソビエト時代の変化の理由は三つあったそうです。一番目はソビエト・ロシアに おいて女性の生活と社会での役割が非常に尊重されていたことで、二番目は宮本 に精神的に非常に影響があった１９２８年の弟の自殺と日本社会は将来がないと 1 宮本賢治、『宮本百合子の世界』、新日本出版社、東京、１９６３
Translationes, 2021
George T. Sipos is one of the Romanian translators who work with languages many of us ... more George T. Sipos is one of the Romanian translators who work with languages many of us would be happy to know a few words in – in his case, Japanese. For more than 25 years now, he has translated from Japanese authors like Yasunari Kawabata, Yukio Mishima, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, Doppo Kunikida, Kunio Kishida, Riichi Yokomitsu, among others. Some of his translations have been commissioned by famous Romanian publishers such as Humanitas or Curtea Veche, while others have been printed in well-known cultural periodicals like România literară, Contrapunct, Timpul. There is no doubt that, in all of them, he has made East seamlessly meet West. George Sipos is a specialist in Japanese language, literature and culture, and holds a PhD degree in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago.
![Research paper thumbnail of Frumusețea simplității: Despre Japonia și nu numai: un interviu cu Prof. Dr. Angela Hondru (The Beauty of Simplicity: On Japan and Beyond. An interview with Prof. Angela Hondru, PhD) [in Romanian]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/29988036/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Timpul 81/2009, pp. 16-17, Jun 2009
Kobayashi Takiji tanjō hyaku nen, botsugo shichijū shūnen kinen shinpojiumu kirokushū, Shirakaba Bungakkan Takiji Raiburarī, Tokyo, 2004. pp. 102-104, 2004
Vineri 20/1999, p. 13, 1999
Litere Noua 8/1998, p. 15, Oct 1998
Contrapunct 3-5/1998, p. 16, Mar 1998
![Research paper thumbnail of Mulți scriitori japonezi merită Premiul Nobel: un interviu cu Prof. Yamamoto Chōichi (Many Japanese Writers Deserve the Nobel Prize: Interview with Prof. Yamamoto Chōichi, PhD, of Hōsei University) [in Romanian]](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/30254784/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](România literară 24/1996, p. 22, Jun 1996
Analele Universităţii de Vest din Timişoara, Jul 1, 2023
The study of modern Japan, in all its aspects, is in constant evolution. From the "re-discovery" ... more The study of modern Japan, in all its aspects, is in constant evolution. From the "re-discovery" of Japan by the United States and the Western European powers during the time known as the Bakumatsu period in the middle of the 19th century to the present day, the field of Japanese studies amassed over 150 years of research on the language, culture, history, and society of the archipelago. A body of scholarship far from limited to what we now define as "modern Japan" has come to be embraced and enriched not only by scholars from the "West", but also by Japanese researchers, alongside others from all over the world. Certainly, defining "Japan" and "modern" poses challenges. For this special issue I opted for a wide view of the "Japan" concept as we came to define it in postwar scholarship: the geopolitical space of the country named Japan today in its borders as set after its defeat in World War II (including some, but not all of the territories and colonies occupied by the Empire of Japan after 1868, the point in time that we identify as its launching into modernity), and populated by ethnic Japanese together with Ainu populations, as well as with Korean, Chinese, and other non-Japanese ethnic groups. "Modern" and "modernity" in turn have also be generously defined here as the period started in the Bakumatsu period (1853-1867, the end of the
Analele Universității de Vest. Seria Științe Filologice
This study reopens the question of the nature of political commitment and its causes during a tim... more This study reopens the question of the nature of political commitment and its causes during a time that drastically altered the history of the 20th century, the 1920s and 1930s. Focused largely on a body of texts produced by Japanese female writer Miyamoto Yuriko (1899-1951) who returned from a three-year long trip to the Soviet Union in late 1920s as a convinced communist, the study offers a comparison with communism renunciation writings produced by leftist Romanian French writer Panait Istrati (1894-1935), as well as other communist and fellow travelers who experienced the same Soviet realities as Miyamoto but with opposite outcomes, such as French writer André Gide (1869-1951). What made those members of the intelligentsia so passionately embrace or renounce certain political ideologies that ultimately changed the face of modern history?
Tenkō: Cultures of Political Conversion in Transwar Japan, 2021
This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its unde... more This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its underlying tropes and themes. Sipos offers a fresh look at tenkō literature and attempts a definition and classification of the literary works typically associated with tenkō based on the writers’ political experience and the subject of their narratives. While it is customary for tenkō literature works to be classified on whether the authors had truly committed to the ideological “conversion” or had done so declaratively to be freed from prison, Sipos takes a different approach. Switching the focus from the authors to the content and style of the literary pieces, he identifies two major thematic/narrative style groups within the tenkō literature category: those dealing with the topic of family and those utilizing the shishōsetsu (I-novel) literary convention, and focuses his attention on critical analyses of both groups.
Japanese Language and Literature
Hoyt Long's second book, The Values in Numbers, focuses on ways in which numerical and computatio... more Hoyt Long's second book, The Values in Numbers, focuses on ways in which numerical and computational methodologies in the study of literature can reveal additional facets to canonical texts or entire genres. Organized in seven chapters, an introduction, five content chapters and an epilogue, The Values in Numbers progresses from an overview of the genealogy of computational and statistical methods in the study of literature in Japan by Japanese writers and researchers to specific study cases of genres such as shishōsetsu, writing methods such as stream-ofconsciousness, racial discourse in literature, as well as the works of specific writers. The introduction, "Uncertainty in Numbers," provides a justification for the choice of quantitative approaches to the study of literary texts. The author identifies two theoretical frameworks that underline the research interests in the book: the history behind the reluctance and outright resistance of the scholarly establishment against the quantitative method in the study of literature, and ways in which it can be overcome thus adding computational research to the array of recognized and vetted analysis tools customarily employed in the critical reading of literary texts. One of the theoretical frameworks is constituted by a historical (genealogical) approach of century-old attempts to employ numbers in literary studies, while the other is the way in which location, be it disciplinary, historical, or social, informs the use of numbers in said studies. When it comes to the latter, Long is particularly invested in bringing his contribution to the body of research that is specifically focused on area studies. Foregrounded in Franco Moretti's "distant reading," the author posits the core of the research in his book at the interstices between the conceptual divisions of numbers and literature on one hand, and literature and literatures on the other. The introduction proceeds to explain the conceptual frameworks and the research behind each of the following five chapters. The organization of the book, as revealed by Long, is informed by five themes: Facts,
Human and Social Studies, 2018
This study reopens the question of the nature of political commitment and its causes during a tim... more This study reopens the question of the nature of political commitment and its causes during a time that drastically altered the history of the 20th century, the 1920s and 1930s. Focused largely on a body of texts produced by Japanese female writer Miyamoto Yuriko (1899-1951) who returned from a three-year long trip to the Soviet Union in late 1920s as a convinced communist, the study offers a comparison with communism renunciation writings produced by leftist Romanian French writer Panait Istrati (1894-1935), as well as other communist and fellow travelers who experienced the same Soviet realities as Miyamoto but with opposite outcomes, such as French writer André Gide (1869-1951). What made those members of the intelligentsia so passionately embrace or renounce certain political ideologies that ultimately changed the face of modern history?
Theory in Action
The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2 in an ... more The present article reexamines the work of Japanese modern writer Dazai Osamu (1909-1948)2 in an attempt to revisit its conventional placement within the tradition of the modern Japanese literary category of the shishōsetsu (approximately, I-novel). By briefly exploring the very elements and definitions of the category itself, as well as Dazai’s literary evolution, the article endeavors to understand what led to the works of his final years life and to the change in narrative techniques that makes those works Dazai’s best writings and some of the most accomplished in modern Japanese literature. KEYWORDS: Dazai Osamu, Authenticity, Author-Function, Michel Foucault, Modern Japanese Fiction, Shishōsetsu
Analele Universității de Vest. Seria Științe Filologice, 2022
The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of ... more The translation and reception of Japanese literature in Romania has followed the vicissitudes of the country’s coming into modernity in the 19th century and slide into fascism and communism throughout the 20th century, as well as the subsequent ups and downs of the relationship with Japan. This research offers a brief overview of that sinuous path. It then focuses on the pre- and post-1990 reception of the works of Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), one of the iconic figures of Japan’s postwar literature and exemplary for his continued trials and tribulations with modernity. By making use of scholarly and journalistic sources, the current incipient research provides several examples of the translation and reception of Mishima’s works in Romania, as well as the extent to which his presence in this literary space has managed to permeate the psyche of Romanian scholars, literary critics and readers alike.