Crisis in Identity. Arthur G. Kimball
Чтение книги онлайн.
Читать онлайн книгу Crisis in Identity - Arthur G. Kimball страница 1
![Crisis in Identity - Arthur G. Kimball Crisis in Identity - Arthur G. Kimball](/cover_pre670748.jpg)
CRISIS IN IDENTITY
CRISIS IN
IDENTITY
AND
CONTEMPORARY
JAPANESE NOVELS
by
Arthur G. Kimball
CHARLES E. TUTTLE COMPANY
Rutland · Vermont: Tokyo · Japan
REPRESENTATIVES
For Continental Europe:
BOXERBOOKS, INC., Zurich
For the British Isles:
PRENTICE-HALL INTERNATIONAL, INC., London
For Australasia:
PAUL FLESCH & CO., PTY. LTD., Melbourne
For Canada:
M. G. HURTIG, LTD., Edmonton
Published by the Charles E. Tuttle Company, Inc.
of Rutland, Vermont & Tokyo, Japan
with editorial offices at
Osaki Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0032
Copyright in Japan 1973
by Charles E. Tuttle Co., Inc.
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 72-91549
ISBN: 978-1-4629-1208-7 (ebook)
First printing, 1973
PRINTED IN JAPAN
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE | |
1 | CRISIS IN IDENTITY |
2 | THE WAR AND THE CANNIBALS |
Fires on the Plain (Shohei Ooka) | |
Luminous Moss (Taijun Takeda) | |
No Requiem (Tadashi Moriya) | |
3 | AFTER THE BOMB |
Black Rain (Masuji Ibuse) | |
4 | IDENTITY LOST |
Homecoming (Jiro Osaragi) | |
5 | THE CREATIVE QUEST |
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (Yukio Mishima) | |
6 | THE LAST EXTREMITY |
House of the Sleeping Beauties (Yasunari Kawabata) | |
Diary of a Mad Old Man (Junichiro Tanizaki) | |
7 | IDENTITY FOUND |
The Woman in the Dunes (Kobo Abe) | |
8 | A NEW HERO |
A Personal Matter (Kenzaburo Oe) | |
NOTES | |
SYLLABUS: A Suggested Reading Course | |
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY |
PREFACE
Although a considerable number of Japanese novels and short stories have been translated into English, very little in the way of analyses or other literary criticism is available. A few specialized studies on individual authors exist, but virtually nothing in terms of a thematic study covering a given period such as the post-World-War-II era under consideration here. Hopefully, this book will contribute to the improvement of this situation.
More specifically, the book is intended to encourage the reading, study, and appreciation of contemporary Japanese fiction and, through it, an understanding of Japan and Japanese culture. The various chapters, including the Syllabus at the end, aim to stimulate and encourage general readers and students to deepen their knowledge of the available literature. The Syllabus in particular aims to encourage the teaching of Japanese literature in the classroom, at both high school and university level, by supplying the teacher and student with study aids.
The book is based on an important and much-discussed contemporary theme, that of identity. This is, of course, only one of many possible approaches; for, as the reader may already know, Japanese literature is rich and diversified. The author, without apology, acknowledges his framework to be primarily that of Western critical assumptions and ideas, to say nothing of his own personal quirks. Hopefully, others will contribute their own insights and further the cause of intercultural understanding.
The author wishes to thank publishers who granted permission to quote material under their copyright.
ARTHUR KIMBALL
1
CRISIS IN IDENTITY
In his intriguing prize-winning essay, "Patterns of Alienation in Contemporary Japan," Munesuke Mita probes the sources of modern Japanese anxiety as they surface in the personal advice column of one of Japan's largest newspapers, the Yomiuri Shimbun.1 His purpose, Mita says, "is to (a) describe the processes by which self-alienation determines