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Paper short abstract

This paper reexamines the novels of Eiki Matayoshi from the perspective of modernity and the fantastic. The fantasy in his works can be seen as a literary methodology explored within the process of contemplating how modern realities are formed amidst a history of oppression.

Paper long abstract

This paper reexamines the novels of Eiki Matayoshi, a representative author of Okinawan literature who won the 114th Akutagawa Prize in 1996, from the perspective of modernity and the fantastic. Many of Matayoshi's works feature fantastical settings often perceived as unrealistic. This fantasy can be seen as a literary methodology explored within the process of contemplating how modern realities are formed amidst a history of oppression and exploitation, and how to reconstruct and reimagine the modernity that arrived alongside violence. This study analyzes how modernity is interrogated through the unrealistic and fantastical settings found in Matayoshi's works. By doing so, it seeks to explore how Okinawan literature, and literature more broadly, can fictionalize history and memory.

First, this paper broadly categorizes Eiki Matayoshi's works into two main types based on their themes and modes of representation, focusing specifically on those featuring the souls of the dead or regions existing at the boundary between reality and fantasy. Focusing particularly on his recently published collection, The Battle of Okinawa Fantasy Stories: The Dreamlike Kingdom (『沖縄戦幻想小説集 夢幻王国』), this paper examines how memories of violence and death during the Battle of Okinawa are rendered in literary form within fantastical settings. It further explores how this approach offers insights into contemplating the 'postwar' era in Okinawa, Japan, and East Asia. As is well known, questions concerning history and memory, rethinking the 'postwar' perspective, and how to remember and commemorate the dead are not limited to Okinawan literature alone; they are also significant from the perspective of East Asia. Secondly, from the perspective of fantasy and reality, studies comparing Okinawan literary works, including those by Matayoshi, to Latin American magical realism have long been conducted. Building upon these prior studies, this paper seeks to examine how the unreal elements in Matayoshi's literature form a new reality through a more fundamental reflection on realism and modernity, and how this might provide clues for a critique of modernity.

Keywords: Eiki Matayoshi, Battle of Okinawa, Postwar Memory, Magical Realism, Okinawa Literature, Modernity, Fantasy