Politics and Literature Debate in Postwar Japanese Criticism, 1945–52

Häftad, Engelska, 2018

AvAtsuko Ueda,Michael K. Bourdaghs,Richi Sakakibara,Hirokazu Toeda

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In the wake of its defeat in World War II, as Japan was forced to remake itself from “empire” to “nation” in the face of an uncertain global situation, literature and literary criticism emerged as highly contested sites. Today, this remarkable period holds rich potential for opening new dialogue between scholars in Japan and North America as we rethink the historical and contemporary significance of a number of important issues, including the meaning of the American occupation both inside and outside of Japan, the shifting semiotics of “literature” and “politics,” and the origins of crucial ideological weapons of the cultural Cold War.This collection features works by Japanese intellectuals written in the immediate postwar period. These writings—many appearing in English for the first time—offer explorations into the social, political, and philosophical debates among Japanese literary elites that shaped the country’s literary culture in the aftermath of defeat.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2018-03-23
Mått150 x 228 x 27 mm
Vikt531 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
SerieNew Studies in Modern Japan
Antal sidor358
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing Plc
ISBN9780739180761

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Atsuko Ueda is associate professor of modern Japanese literature in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University.Michael K. Bourdaghs is professor of modern Japanese literature in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago. Richi Sakakibara is professor of modern Japanese literature at Waseda University.Hirokazu Toeda is professor of modern Japanese literature at Waseda University.

Introduction, Atsuko Ueda, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Richi Sakakibara, and Hirokazu ToedaPart I: The Politics and Literature DebateChapter 1: Art, History, Humanity, Honda Shugo (Translated by Scott Mehl, annotated by Richi Sakakibara and Mariko Takano)Chapter 2: Second Youth, Ara Masahito (Translated and annotated by William H. Bridges and Junko Yamazaki)Chapter 3: Who Are the People?, Ara Masahito (Translated by David Boyd, annotated by Richi Sakakibara and Mariko Takano)Chapter 4: The Responsibility of Writers: A Roundtable Discussion, Ara Masahito, Odagiri Hideo, Sasaki Kiichi, Haniya Yutaka, Hirano Ken, and Honda Shugo (Translated by Patrick Schwemmer and Tomoko Takeuchi Slutsky, annotated by Noriko Yamaguchi)Chapter 5: An Antithesis, Hirano Ken (Translated and annotated by Junko Yamazaki, with William H. Bridges, Patrick Schwemmer, Kaori Shiono, Joshua Solomon, Mariko Takano, and Noriko Yamaguchi)Chapter 6: Establishing Criteria, Hirano Ken (Translated and annotated by Miyabi Goto)Chapter 7:

This ambitious volume provides a long-missing perspective on Japanese literary production in the vortex of the immediate postwar. Indeed, one could argue we have been hard-pressed to understand the full import of postwar Japanese literature without it. Brought to life in translations by distinguished scholars, these essays allow us at last to situate fiction and poetry of the time in the context of the fraught intellectual debates of a society emerging from fascism. Moreover, in their passion and their sheer detail and nuance, these essays dissolve facile oppositions between communism and individualism, the aesthetic and the political, that have shaped Cold War frameworks for the study of Japan. Rather, they illuminate the commingling of modernism, Marxism, and existentialism in a vein of humanist discourse that could be said to constitute the specificity of Japan in the global postwar.