| The Dilemma of the Modern in Japanese Fiction Contributor(s): Washburn, Dennis C. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0300105258 ISBN-13: 9780300105254 Publisher: Yale University Press OUR PRICE: $43.56 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: April 1995 Annotation: This book examines modernity in Japanese literary culture as a continuing historical dynamic rather than merely the product of the intense Westernization of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author links the modern in Japan to a sense of cultural discontinuity that may be located in fictional narratives before the encounter of Japan with the West, and he argues that modernity in Meiji Japan can be understood in terms of cultural conflict - not only Japan versus the West but also Japan's present versus its past. Dennis Washburn compares readings from Meiji literature with readings from pre-Meiji and post-Meiji works. He begins with Genji monogatari (early eleventh century) and the Hojoki (1212) continues with stories by Saikaku (late seventeenth century), and ends with a consideration of selected texts from the Meiji period (1868-1912) through the end of the Second World War. Washburn focuses on common thematic elements that recur over time and on such formal considerations as voice and perspective that evolve historically to give expression to a sense of the modern. Using this approach, he is able to look at individual authors in a new way and present significant reevaluations of many important texts. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | Asian - Japanese |
| Dewey: 895.634 |
| Series: Studies of the East Asian Institute |
| Physical Information: 0.73" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (0.92 lbs) 326 pages |
| Themes: - Cultural Region - Asian - Cultural Region - East Asian - Cultural Region - Japanese |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: This book looks at modernity in Japanese literary culture as a continuing historical dynamic rather than as merely the product of the intense Westernization of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The author links the modern in Japan to a sense of cultural discontinuity that may be located in fictional narratives before the encounter of Japan with the West, and he argues that modernity in Meiji Japan can be understood in terms of cultural conflict--not only Japan versus the West, but also Japan's present versus its past. Washburn compares readings from Meiji literature with readings from pre-Meiji and post-Meiji works. He begins with Genji monogatari (early eleventh century) and the Hojoki (1212), continues with stories by Saikaku (late seventeenth century), and ends with a consideration of selected texts from the Meiji period (1868-1912) through the end of the Second World War. Washburn focuses on common thematic elements that recur over time and on such formal considerations as voice and perspective that evolve historically to give expression to the sense of the modern. Using this approach, he is able to look at many individual authors in a new way and to present significant reevaluations of many important texts. This book is also a study of the East Asian Institute, Columbia University. |
