Abe Kōbō and Ōe Kenzaburō: The Search for Identity in Contemporary Japanese Literature

Breve análise dos reflexos da Segunda Guerra Mundial nas obras literárias japonesas

Estudos Japoneses ◽

10.11606/issn.2447-7125.v27i0p139-146 ◽

1969 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 139-146

Author(s):

Mónica Setuyo Okamoto

Keyword(s):

Japanese Literature ◽

Kawabata Yasunari ◽

Oe Kenzaburo

this article discusses the relation between Japanese Literature and Second War, from three writer* s works: Dazai Osamu, Kawabata Yasunari and Oe Kenzaburo. The focus on the war theme, in the three works, direct or indirectly, shows how each one treat of psychologies impacts caused by war and their reflexes in their books.

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The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth-Century Japanese Literature. By Leith Morton. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2009. ix, 257 pp. $56.00 (cloth). - Sublime Voices: The Fictional Science and Scientific Fiction of Abe Kōbō. By Christopher Bolton. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2009. xiii, 332 pp. $39.95 (cloth).

The Journal of Asian Studies ◽

10.1017/s0021911810002500 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 69 (4) ◽

pp. 1247-1249

Author(s):

Kumiko Sato

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Japanese Literature ◽

Harvard University ◽

Abe Kobo ◽

University Of Hawai'i

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Japanese Literature class discussion of Active Learning - Abe kobo "The Woman in the Dunes" for example -

Journal of Japanese Culture ◽

10.21481/jbunka..66.201508.163 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol null (66) ◽

pp. 163-179

Author(s):

이정희

Keyword(s):

Active Learning ◽

Japanese Literature ◽

Class Discussion ◽

Abe Kobo ◽

Literature Class

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The Influence of English Literature and Language on Ōe Kenzaburō, Murakami Haruki, and other Japanese Novelists

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.169 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Masahiko Abe

Keyword(s):

World Literature ◽

English Language ◽

English Literature ◽

William Blake ◽

Extreme Case ◽

Japanese Literature ◽

The Novel ◽

Japanese People ◽

Fictional World ◽

Oe Kenzaburo

Ōe Kenzaburō and Murakami Haruki are known for their persistent interests in various authors of world literature, especially those writing in English. From their early days, they read novels in English, a custom that helped them to distance themselves from traditional Japanese literature; they thus cultivated modes of writing free from the aesthetics and ways of thinking cherished by their predecessors. Several authors had great impacts on their literary views; in Ōe’s case it was William Blake, in Murakami’s F. Scott Fitzgerald. The styles of both Japanese authors were influenced by their encounters with the English language. The issue is not purely linguistic; alternative modes of writing inevitably bring about changes in narrative styles, moods, characterization, and even a fundamental sense of values that underlies the fictional world. Ōe and Murakami unmistakably played definitive roles in postwar Japanese literature. Their responses to the world that surrounded Japan after the war offer a way to understand the psyche of the Japanese people in the 20th and 21st centuries. American influence can be observed in many other novelists writing after the 1980s, too, including Yasuo Tanaka’s Somewhat Crystal (Nantonaku Kurisutaru), together with Murakami Ryu and Yamada Eimi. The novel is often seen to mark the onset of postmodernism in Japan, as it presents an extreme case of consumption-oriented life, which, combined with fascination with imported cultural icons, typifies Japanese reception of the West, particularly America. Significantly, Tanaka’s novel was endorsed by the conservative critic Jun Etō and led to the nullification of the border between traditional and popular literatures.

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