Paper short abstract:

The 1940s and 1950s saw the development of Contemporary Japanese Poetry (gendaishi). Looking at the defining moments of this term, I aim to give an overview of ideological aspects of poetry production set for change. Special focus will be given to new debates on the gendaishi since 2011.

Paper long abstract:

The year 2015 marked the 70th anniversary not only of the end of the Pacific War, but also a caesura that came to redefine Modern Japanese Poetry (kindaishi) under the term Contemporary Japanese Poetry (gendaishi) still perceived today. In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a teleological change between prewar and postwar poetics came to the forefront of attention as established poetry groups were quick to reemerge and comment on the changing artistic, cultural and sociopolitical realities of writing. None more so than the modernist poetry group ARECHI, who proclaimed in their manifesto X e no kenji [Dedication to X] in 1951 that "the present is a waste land" (gendai wa arechi de aru), much in line with T.S. Eliots famous poem "The Waste Land" (1922). Other poets and literary figures emerging during that time, like Tanikawa Shuntarô or the hibakusha-writers concerned with the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, helped to redefine and to reimagine the basic conditions for writing poetry in Japan not only through their poetics, but their own experiences and backgrounds. The legacy of the early years of postwar Japanese poetry, with its hard fought political, ideological and personal struggles, stands as a testimony for a literature in desperate need for change after a war that came to undermine a system belief and the role of the political artist alike.

Looking back at the beginning and the defining moments of the gendaishi by combining micro and macro-level case studies, this lecture aims to give an overview of the political and ideological aspects of poetry production set for "change", while also grasping at the neglected research field of Contemporary Japanese Poetry in general. Special focus will be given to current reinterpretations and self-reflections within the field of the gendaishi, which highlighted the desire to look back at 70 years of political writing in Japan after the 3.11 catastrophe, and asked if yet another profound change was imminent. It is part of an ongoing Ph.D. research project into contemporary Japanese poetry and the Fukushima-research project at the department of Japanese Studies in Frankfurt.