The Rise and Fall of Modern Japanese Literature (original) (raw)

The Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature

The Routledge Handbook of Modern Japanese Literature provides a comprehensive overview of how we study Japanese literature today. Rather than taking a purely chronological approach to the content, the chapters survey the state of the field through a number of pressing issues and themes, examining the ways in which it is possible to read modern Japanese literature and situate it in relation to critical theory. The Handbook examines various modes of literary production (such as fiction, poetry, and critical essays) as distinct forms of expression that nonetheless are closely interrelated. Attention is drawn to the idea of the bunjin as a ‘person of letters’ and a more realistic assessment is provided of how writers have engaged with ideas – not labelled a ‘novelist’ or ‘poet’, but a ‘writer’ who may at one time or another choose to write in various forms. The book provides an overview of major authors and genres by situating them within broader themes that have defined the way writers...

JPNS 432.01: Postwar Japanese Literature

2002

Content: This course, an elective for the major in Japanese, is designed for students having little or no previous knowledge of Japan. We will examine Japanese writers' responses to the spiritual and economic collapse that follows Japanese defeat in WWII, conditions under the US occupation, economic recovery and prosperity, and postmodernism. We will also explore how various writers deal with concepts of family, gender, memory; identity, history, sexuality, the emperor system, state power, marginality, language, myth, nationalism, etc. Note that all works read will be in English (Those who read Japanese may read Japanese originals), and no knowledge of the Japanese language is required or expected.

Rodica Frentiu: Contemporary Japanese Literature in Its Transition

2016

Although Japan recorded no specific literary movement in the 1980s, in any classical sense of the term, we may say that today we are witnessing, in terms of our historical sensibility, a condensation of narrative viewpoints upon the present or, in other words, the transposition of the criteria of the present to another time, which is undoubtedly a consequence of the so-called “postmodern ” will to reject grand narratives. This study aims to review and complete the inventory of the postmodern characteristics that specialised literature has identified in Haruki Murakami’s works, seen from the perspective of what the author of the present paper considers to be the “new postmodern humanism.”

Decadent Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan

Decadent Literature in Twentieth-Century Japan, 2013

If you did not make it to the first meeting you have one more change: Thursday, April 3, 1030 am-1130 am. Language Resource Center, 1126 OLDH It is imperative that if you have not ever gone to Language Fair that you attend a meeting. It would be good, even if you are a veteran, to come to one of the meetings for a refresher. This is a great time to ask me all of your burning questions. I'll do a quick run through the day, speak (briefly) to the events, and point out things that have been confusing to others in the past. You should have received an assignment list in your email, if you have not, please see Shannon right away. 10 th-LANGUAGE FAIR-No Language Classes.

The Rise of the Japanese Novel: Towards a Neo-Darwinian Approach to Literary History

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2006

The text grew directly out of a form evolved within capitalist culture, and it had to function within a literary environment dominated by the traditional bourgeois novel. At the same time, within the circumscribed environment into which the text was written, the outsized role of the individual and his relationship with society in bourgeois culture was anathema. Having the happier ending done in summary form after the leaders of the unsuccessful strike are taken away avoids the taint of individual heroism-something that would have been a danger had the successful strike been carried out in the main body of the narrative where the workers, though known only by sobriquets, could still be seen as separable or individualizible characters. The ending, in other words, is a survival strategy, something which-though imperfect-functioned in its day. This book, in many ways, is supposed to follow a similar path. At its heart it is a study that combines the methodologies of literary history and the history of the book. Both are established and accepted scholarly approaches, and there is no need to argue for theory as a means to attack or rewrite the accepted literary historical narrative. Instead, I recognize that the work of my scholarly predecessors-both those who created and refined the dominant narrative as well as those who have tried to relativize or undermine it-is careful and generally correct, and my scholarly contribution lies in trying to explain, in a new way, the already known facts and trends of Japanese literary history by

Some Aspects of the New History of Japanese Literature

2012

This article discusses the concept of a new textbook of the history of Japanese literature commissioned by the Polish Scientific Publishers PWN in Warsaw, which was further developed during the writing process. The purpose of the book had to be decided before writing, as well as my thoughts on my earlier book on Japanese literature. To start, it was necessary to decide on the division of the contents into periods, as well as the genres and problems within a given epoch. It was also necessary to take into consideration the scope of civilization information introduced into the history of literature, the degree of dependence of Japanese literature on the literatures of neighboring countries, as well as on European and American literatures. I call the aforementioned matters aspects – points of view on the ways these problems are dealt with in the contents of the publication, and explain the contents comprised of the outlines of six epochs, with the onset of contacts with China in the 6t...