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Paper short abstract:

In this paper, I explore the interconnectedness between language and identity in Wen Yuju’s novella Eien nenkei (2021). I apply an intersectional approach to examine the protagonists’ relationships with Japan’s history of imperialism, its patriarchal institutions, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Paper long abstract:

The Japanese dictionary Nihon kokugo daijiten defines the terms bogo as “the language one learns first during childhood” but then it further paraphrases it as bokugo, that is to say, “the language of the country where one was born, or to which one belongs.” Thus, images of ownership and belonging are strictly connected to the idea of “mother tongue” and the literary composition outside of it has been often viewed as a challenging literary activity. Nevertheless, contemporary authors, in particular so-called ekkyō sakka (border-crossing writers) and bairingaru sakka (bilingual writers), proved that the idea of national literature enclosed within a homogeneous linguistic system breaks down when it comes to describing what is happening in Japan today. At the same time, they show how the idea of “mother tongue” cannot leave aside an analysis of Japan’s history of imperialism. Furthermore, recent literary works shed light on the necessity of addressing the issues of language and nationality in connection with gender and sexuality, in that an intersectional approach is essential to understand the experience of suppression and discrimination of younger generations. Wen Yuju’s literature is an important example in this regard: she has positioned herself as a Japanese-language writer of Taiwanese nationality and her literary works move beyond the concept of mother tongue while exploring the interconnectedness between language and identity.

This paper analyzes Wen Yuju’s novella Forever Young (Eien nenkei, 2021), where the author depicts the evolution of the relationship between three friends: Hayashi Yukiko, Hayashi Mirei, and Hayashi Keiichi. While the three protagonists share one of the most common last names in Japan, their lives are very different, in that their nationality, gender, and sexual orientation, among other aspects, shape the way they experience the world inside and outside the language of the country they belong to. The aim of this paper is to explore the intersections depicted in Forever Young: How do past and future intersect in the lives of young “Japanese” people? How do our linguistic/national/gender identity and sexual orientation shape our relationship with Japan’s history of imperialism, its patriarchal institutions, and the most recent “pandemic othering?”