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- Convenors:
-
Keiko Kanai
(Waseda University)
Caterina Mazza (Ca' Foscari University of Venice)
Daniela Moro (University of Turin (Italy))
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- Chair:
-
Hannah Osborne
(University of East Anglia)
- Stream:
- Modern Literature
- Location:
- Torre A, Piso -1, Auditório 002
- Sessions:
- Friday 1 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
Looking at works of post-war Japanese literature handling characters in a condition of disadvantage or marginality, the aim of the panel is to suggest a reflection on the strategic use of political incorrectness in a selected corpus of fictions that rework contemporary socially accepted discourses.
Long Abstract:
On the level of meaning, the idea of putting political correctness into practice is defined as "avoidance of expressions or actions that can be perceived to exclude or marginalize or insult people who are socially disadvantaged or discriminated against" (Green, Jonathon; Karolides, Nicholas J., 2005).
This is a measure which spread in the 1980ies starting from the U.S., but on the level of literary expression it has not always been welcomed, due to its tendency to bring the rigidity of "word hunting" into the text.
At first sight, political incorrectness could be taken as a situation of unawareness which would have needed to be corrected before political correctness was professed. Nevertheless, precisely because the expression of an objection to their disadvantage enhances the power of imagination of problematic beings, we must not neglect some challenging literary works which make a strategic use of political incorrectness.
This panel is focused on the analysis of "Eguchi suieki" (1981) by Saegusa Kazuko, "Minamata umi no koe" (1982) by Ishimure Michiko, and "Koi suru genpatsu" (2011) by Takahashi Gen'ichirō.
A mother and a daughter, two generations of women who are "cursed" by the spirit of the prostitute Eguchi of the Noh play, being promiscuous for different reasons. A little girl who doesn't speak, died of Minamata disease with a little fox. A film director and his staff that start making adult movies for charity, engaging in a "(parodic)-political-porno-philanthropic" action for the victims of the Fukushima's triple disaster. All these characters, being in a condition of disadvantage or marginality, show on occasion an "incorrectness", whose significance is worth analyzing.
The aim of the panel is to suggest a reflection which follows the routes of "indelicate" voices in contemporary literature, that have openly expressed the unspeakable on very "delicate" and crucial themes of Japanese post-war era. The chosen perspective - that of "strategic marginality" - will lead us to explore the potential of literary expressions when they are deliberately chosen to rework the contemporaneity and its socially accepted discourses.
References
Green, Jonathon; Karolides, Nicholas J. (2005). Encyclopedia of Censorship, New Edition. New York: Facts on file Inc., p. 449.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 1 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
"Minamata umi no koe" is narrated from the stance of equivalence between human beings and environment. While taking a distance from the tendencies of appreciation she is having in the field of Environmental Literature, I would like to think of a possibility to re-read Ishimure Michiko's works.
Paper long abstract:
"Minamata umi no koe" (the voice of Minamata sea) by Ishimure Michiko (1982) is a work of children's literature illustrated by Maruki Toshi and Maruki Iri, already known for their "Genbaku no zu" (Hiroshima panels). It is a trilogy together with "Hiroshima no pika" (the flash of Hiroshima) by Maruki Toshi and Maruki Iri, and "Okinawa shima no koe" (the voice of Okinawa), collected in a single volume entitled "Kiroku no ehon" (documentary illustrated book). These books, written as a record of the memories of Hiroshima, Minamata and Okinawa, have small children as protagonists, while in "Minamata umi no koe" together with the little girl victim of Minamata disease, a little fox and various monsters appear as main characters. The period in which this work has been written coincides with protestations by the movements of victims asking for compensation for Minamata disease and also with the re-questioning of the method used in mercury sludge disposal plants. In other words, it represents a further development in adding to objections against the violation of human rights, the re-thinking of what human beings should do or should not do to the environment.
The work "Kugai jōdo: Waga Minamatabyō" (sea of suffering and the Pure Land: our Minamata disease), which preceded this, investigated thoroughly the compensation of human victims for the damage they suffered. On the other hand, in narrating to children representing the future, "Minamata umi no koe" chooses to do it from the stance of equivalence between human beings and the environment surrounding human beings. In this paper, while taking a critical distance from the late tendencies of overwhelming appreciation she is having in the field of Environmental Literature, I would like to think of a possibility to re-read Ishimure Michiko's works.
Paper short abstract:
I propose an analysis of "Eguchi suieki" (1981) by Saegusa Kazuko from the point of view of gender and intertextuality with the noh play "Eguchi", focusing on the image of the female sex worker between slavery and agency and I explore the possibilities of the text in the contemporary context.
Paper long abstract:
Saegusa Kazuko (1929-2003) wrote "Eguchi suieki" at the beginning of the 1980ies. In this shōsetsu, many sexual topics appear without veils, since they are seen from the point of view of insiders of the world of appointment houses and prostitution. At the time the concept of politically correctness was not born yet, but surely touching points such as rape, female sexual promiscuity, the role of geisha, prostitutes or comfort women was already considered delicate. Much postwar literature (Kimura 2016) around the topic of comfort women was obviously focused on the oppression and abuse by Japanese military over Japanese and other Asian women. On the other hand, the role of comfort women had also been represented in literature as a positive way to escape traditional roles of mother and wife (Slaymaker, 2004). Even if denouncing the violence and the sexual discrimination at the base of this system, Saegusa shows through the two main characters (a former comfort woman and her daughter) the possibility of being a promiscuous woman by choice, be it for money, sexual pleasure or for a sense of compassion towards the male partners. More focused on questioning commonsensical moral values than to denounce war sexual crimes, In "Eguchi suieki" the ambiguity of the female figure - both victimized by and satisfied with sexuality outside marriage - leaves an inevitable sense of incongruity. In my presentation I would like to explore how the cynical stance at the base of the narration, which today would be linked to the issue of politically correctness, can be strategically used to rethink topics related to gender such as voluntary prostitution, which are still discussed (Shrage 2016). In particular, I intend to investigate if the intertextuality with the noh drama "Eguchi", based on the non-dualistic concept of good and evil, ultimately succeeds in showing the figure of the sex worker from a non-judgmental position. Moreover, I would like to explore the device of blurring the boundary of self and other (Sugii 2009) by a continue noh-like overlapping of dream and reality, past and present, which strengthens the complexity and possibility of this text.
Paper short abstract:
In this presentation I will show how in his short novel “Koi suru genpatsu”, Takahashi Gen’ichirō (b. 1951) exploits parody to show the critical function of self-reflexive literature, rising a political incorrect voice against the supremacy of the “not said” in the Japanese society.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation is focused on the short novel “Koi suru genpatsu” (“A Hot Nuclear Reactor”) by Takahashi Gen’ichirō, published for the first time in the November 2011 issue of Gunzō, a few months after the Tohoku’s “Triple Disaster”. The novel is summarized in the table of contents of the issue as “A tale about the love, the adventures and the spirit of a group of men who struggle to realize a charity adult movie for the victims of the great earthquake”. The provocative association of “porn” and “charity” is not new for Takahashi: he had previously published on Gunzō (October 2002-August 2004) a series of texts based on the same theme and titled “Meikingu obu dōji tahatsu ero” (“Synchronized Erotic Attacks: The Making Of”), punning on the term used to describe the September 11th terrorist attacks to US (dōji tahatsu tero). This deliberately outrageous approach and the recourse to explicit material, could echo the dissident attitude of the avant-garde Japanese filmmakers that in the 1960s created a counter-cinema in a moment of great political ferment, to which Takahashi is not unrelated: it is known that he took part in the student protests of those years and that the activist experience had a tremendous impact on his artistic production. Since the first novels and essays published in the early 1980s, Takahashi showed a clear path running through all his works: his literary engagement is an incessant attempt “to renew political and literary sign systems as a means of resisting the limitations imposed by the state, the media, and literary criticism” (Yamada 2011). Takahashi constantly shows his intolerance to the coercion of imposed discourse, be it by social convention or literary interpretation; his works are highly metafictional and very often openly parodic, as in the case of “Koi suru genpatsu”. As remarked by Hutcheon, postmodernist parody is both “deconstructively critical and constructively creative, paradoxically making us aware of both the limits and the powers of representation” (1989). In this presentation, I will show how Takahashi exploits parody to show the critical function of self-reflexive literature, rising a political incorrect voice against the supremacy of the “not said” in the Japanese society.