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- Convenors:
-
Lukas Bruna
(Jissen Women's University)
Igor Cima (Hosei University)
Anna Cima (Charles University)
Send message to Convenors
- Discussant:
-
Jan Sýkora
(Charles University)
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Modern Literature
- Location:
- Lokaal 2.24
- Sessions:
- Sunday 20 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Brussels
Short Abstract:
This panel focuses on various discourses on rebellion in pre-war Japan, politically charged 60’s, and finally postmodern 80’s literature. In the papers presented in this panel, we discuss various depictions of rebellion and how they relate to their historical context.
Long Abstract:
Rebellion in various forms, implicit or explicit, political or individual, and also literary rebellion against the old ways or new ones is a staple of modern Japanese literature. This panel is conceptualized as an analysis of various discourses on rebellion, both literal and metaphorical, throughout modern, post-war and contemporary literary history, allowed by the broad perspective of presented papers. First paper examines various representations of the sanka phenomenon in prewar Japanese literature and journalism. Sanka, nomad people who once lived in Japan, and their nomadic lifestyle were depicted in many works, both fiction and nonfiction. Be it romanticized versions as seen in Tayama Katai’s story Kikoku (1916), or dismissive views expressed by Takano Yasaburō, who considered sanka to be a threat to national security, various depictions of sanka show us how the idea of freedom and rebellion against the norm attracted or repelled authors in prewar period. Second paper is focused on Ōe Kenzaburō’s novel Man’en gan’nen no futtobōru (1967) where Ōe created a world in which rebellion that occurred in 1860 ripples throughout time and influences lives of its characters hundred years into the future. Ōe’s novel layers several turbulent periods of Japanese history, and constructs a unique fictional space, where individual and historical narratives coexist together with local myth. Characters of the novel construct their own individual narratives of the past, that are key to their personal identity, but often clash with each other, in a highly symbolic vision of postwar Japan. The third and last paper examines works of writers like Murakami Haruki, Takahashi Gen’ichirō or Shimada Masahiko, and their representation and postwar Japan. Their ironic depiction of postwar modernity, often coupled with metafictional or deconstructive elements relies on allusions toward writers like Ōe Kenzaburō or Mishima Yukio among others. Murakami and Takahashi created their works based on their own experiences as students in the 60’s while Shimada presents parodic vision of new generation. Their ironic detachment and often ridicule of rebellion, and their own towards canonical figures and works marked the end of modern and transition to postmodern period.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Sunday 20 August, 2023, -Paper short abstract:
This paper will focus on the issue of so-called sanka, nomadic people who once supposedly lived in Japan, and through the analysis of various texts will explore the ways these „mountain people“ and their lifestyle were portrayed in mid-war journalism as well as in literary works.
Paper long abstract:
Sanka, a group of nomadic people who supposedly lived in Japan and disappeared sometime during the high growth period, has constantly attracted attention of scholars, journalists, and writers, yet to these days little is known about them. The folklorist Kunio Yanagita who researched various nomadic groups he called yamabito (mountain people) was one of the first who pointed out the existence of this mysterious group. Based on Yanagita’s findings Katai Tayama wrote Return Home (Kikoku, 1916), a short story which portrays the life of sanka. As already suggested by literary critics at the time the story was published Tayama does not provide readers with realistic depiction, on the contrary what he presents is clearly romanticized image of self-determined and free-spirited outcasts who live outside the modern society unbound by its rules and morals and this image is resembling the vagabonds who started to appear frequently in modern Japanese literature by the end of Meiji period.
Tayama was probably one of the first who brought the character of sanka to imaginative literature but not the last. The issue of sanka became quite popular and was often picked up not only by writers such as Shiro Kunieda, Kido Okamoto, Yoshizo Nakamura, Kan Misumi and others, but also by journalists. Throughout Taisho and early Showa period significant number of articles about sanka can be traced in the main Japanese newspapers and this fact itself proves the popularity of the topic among readers. Notably many of these articles provided contrasting views on the issue of sanka, sometimes dismissive at other times fiercely critical.
This paper does not intend to explore the very existence of sanka, rather than that it focuses on how this issue was presented in media and how it was embodied in the works of literature. Through the analysis of various forms of representations and meanings attributed to sanka we can trace the ambivalent attitude as some were attracted by the idea of self-determined way of life while others rejected it as a form of rebellion that threatens the very foundations of state.
Paper short abstract:
In Man'en gan'nen no futtobōru (1967) Ōe created a world where echoes of 1860 revolt shape lives of two brothers – Mitsusaburō and Takashi, who return to their home on Shikoku. This paper examines how characters in the novel construct their identities through often distorted narratives of the past.
Paper long abstract:
Ōe Kenzaburō's novel Man'en gan'nen no futtobōru was published in 1967 and arguably marked a peak of the first decade of Ōe's career as a writer and could be read as a culmination of various motives, that were characteristic of his early works. The novel tells a story of two brothers, Nedokoro Mitsusaburō and Takashi, who travel back to their home village on Shikoku in early 1960’s. Main purpose of their visit is to sell their old family storehouse, but they also seek recovery from various traumas they suffered in the past. Mitsusaburō just lost a friend, who killed himself under bizarre circumstances. Mitsusaburō´s wife struggles with alcoholism, after giving birth to handicapped baby they eventually left in an institution. Takashi has just returned from US, where he went with theater group called Our Shame after the failure of 1960 Anpo protests and returned to Japan obsessed with heroic visions of their family’s past.
In Man'nen gan'nen no futtobōru, Ōe created a world where historical and individual narratives together with local myths create a unique fictional space - the idea of 1860 peasant rebellion led by Mitsusaburō and Takashi's great-grandfather's younger brother has already deviated far from historical fact but has always been present in a form of a myth. Both brothers construct their own narratives of the past events, not only of 1860 rebellion, but also regarding the death of their brother S after the end of the WWII. While older, passive Mitsusaburō tends to question the myth and is rather skeptical towards the idea of heroism, active Takashi accepts it, identifies with it and even strives to recreate it in contemporary setting.
This paper examines how Ōe’s layering of various turbulent periods of Japanese history ripples throughout time in form of constructed individual narratives, that often clash with each other and how the idea of revolt and one´s approach towards it construct the identity of an individual. In this context, the presenter examines a symbolic function of these individual narratives in the context of post-war Japan and mainly the turbulent 1960’s.
Paper short abstract:
This paper focuses on several works of Murakami Haruki, Takahashi Gen’ichirō and Shimada Masahiko, their ironic and often parodic depiction of student movement, and their own rebellion towards canonical figures like Ōe Kenzaburō or Mishima Yukio.
Paper long abstract:
In the context of Japanese literary history, the period from late 1970’s and through the 1980’s was in many ways transitional. During this period a generation of post-war born writers like Nakagami Kenji, Murakami Ryū, Murakami Haruki, Takahashi Gen’ichirō or Shimada Masahiko made their literary debut. Their works are associated with deconstructive or relativistic attitudes towards modern phenomena like individual identity, family, history or the idea of nation state or literature itself.
This transition can be also seen in treatment of various figures and works from modern and post-war literary history. Murakami Haruki in 1973 nen no pinbōru (1980) alludes towards Ōe’s novel Man’en gan’nen no futtobōru (1967), in Hitsuji wo meguru bōken (1982) his dismissive depiction of Mishima Yukio’s televised speech before his seppuku is coupled with the theme of right-wing legacy of Japanese history. Takahashi Gen’ichirō often uses allusions towards figures and works of modern and post-war literary history in an ahistorical way, robbing them of their historical context and putting them on a same arbitrary level as any other sign. Early works of both writers are heavily influenced by the 1960’s student movement they both experienced, albeit in a very different way. In this sense, their rebellion towards literary canon couples with shadow of post-war history and student rebellion, that caused the end of so called seiji no kisetsu, or “political season” and marked a generation for decades to come. On the other hand, Shimada Masahiko’s early works are in sharp contrast to Murakami and Takahashi. Being from a younger generation, Shimada’s ironic and parodic detachment towards the idea of rebellion is even deeper, as expressed not only in his often comedic depiction of young activists, but also his parodic allusions to works by Ōe, or his ironic depiction of Mishima Yukio in works like Boku wa mozō ningen (1986).
This paper focuses on function of allusions towards mostly post-war authors, that provide a political charge to the works of above-mentioned authors, and examines, how this often dismissive or ironic treatment of modern and post-war legacy marks a transition towards the postmodern.