Author: Soseki Natsume Publisher: Tuttle Publishing ISBN: 1462904742 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 96
Book Description
Written in eight days, in December 1905, and published in the January 1906 issue of the magazine Teikoku Bungaku (Imperial Literature), Shumi no iden (The Heredity of Taste) is Soseki Natsume's only anti-war work. Chronicling the mourning process of a narrator haunted by his friend's death, the story reveals Soseki's attitude to the atrocity of war, specifically to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-5, and to the personal tragedies and loss of individuality of young men like his hero Ko-san, and the sacrifices made by both the living and the dead. Although the first part of the story powerfully describes the narrator's visions of the war dead, including the recurring vision of Ko-san who cannot climb out of a ditch and return from the war, it is the second half, in which a beautiful and mysterious woman appears before the narrator at Ko-san's grave, with the promise of transcendence, that grips our attention. The story centers on finding out the identity of this woman and her relationship with Ko-san, with it's implication that what should have been a love story has been shattered by the reality of war-a reminder of the magnitude of Japan's sacrifice for it's so-called victory.
Author: Publisher: Tuttle Publishing ISBN: 1462905110 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 598
Book Description
Written by imperial command in the eighth century, The Kojiki: Records of Ancient Matters is Japan's classic of classics, the oldest connected literary work and the fundamental scripture of Shinto. A more factual history called the Nihongi or Nihon Shoki (Chronicles of Japan) was completed in A.D. 720, but The Kojiki remains the better known, perhaps because of its special concern with the legends of the gods, with the divine descent of the imperial family, and with native Shinto. Both works have immense value as records of the development of Japan into a unified state with a well-defined character. Indeed, even the mythological aspects were accepted as fact throughout most of subsequent Japanese history--until the defeat and disillusionment of the nation in 1945. This classic text is a key to the historical roots of the Japanese people--their early life and the development of their character and institutions--as well as a lively mixture of legend and history, genealogy, and poetry. It stands as one of the greatest monuments of Japanese literature because it preserves more faithfully than any other book the mythology, manners, language and traditions of Japan. It provides, furthermore, a vivid account of a nation in the making. The work opens "when chaos had begun to condense, but force and form were not yet manifest, and there was nought named, nought done &ellipse;" It recounts the mythological creation of Japan by the divine brother and sister Izanami and Izanagi; tales of the Sun Goddess and other deities; the divine origin of Jimmu the first emperor; and the histories of subsequent reigns. Epic material is complemented by a fresh bucolic vein expressed in songs and poetry. This famous translation by the British scholar Basil Hall Chamberlain is enhanced by notes on the text and an extensive introduction discussing early Japanese society, as well as The Kojiki and its background. Important for its wealth of information, The Kojiki is indispensable to anyone interested in things Japanese.
Author: Marvin Marcus Publisher: University of Hawaii Press ISBN: 0824864093 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 281
Book Description
Much has been written about Natsume Soseki (1867–1916), one of Japan’s most celebrated writers. Known primarily for his novels, he also published a large and diverse body of short personal writings (shohin) that have long lived in the shadow of his fictional works. The essays, which appeared in the Asahi shinbun between 1907 and 1915, comprise a fascinating autobiographical mosaic, while capturing the spirit of the Meiji era and the birth of modern Japan. In Reflections in a Glass Door, Marvin Marcus introduces readers to a rich sampling of Soseki’s shohin. The writer revisits his Tokyo childhood, recalling family, friends, and colleagues and musing wistfully on the transformation of his city and its old neighborhoods. He painfully recounts his two years in London, where he immersed himself in literary research even as he struggled with severe depression. A chronic stomach ailment causes Soseki to reflect on his own mortality and what he saw as the spiritual afflictions of modern Japanese: rampant egocentrism and materialism. Throughout he adopts a number of narrative voices and poses: the peevish husband, the harried novelist, the convalescent, the seeker of wisdom. Marcus identifies memory and melancholy as key themes in Soseki’s personal writings and highlights their relevance in his fiction. He balances Soseki’s account of his Tokyo household with that of his wife, Natsume Kyoko, who left a straightforward record of life with her celebrated husband. Soseki crafted a moving and convincing voice in his shohin, which can now be pondered and enjoyed for their penetrating observation and honesty, as well as the fresh perspective they offer on one of Japan’s literary giants.
Author: Keith J. Vincent Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 1684175283 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 261
Book Description
"Until the late nineteenth century, Japan could boast of an elaborate cultural tradition surrounding the love and desire that men felt for other men. By the first years of the twentieth century, however, as heterosexuality became associated with an enlightened modernity, love between men was increasingly branded as “feudal” or immature. The resulting rupture in what has been called the “male homosocial continuum” constitutes one of the most significant markers of Japan’s entrance into modernity. And yet, just as early Japanese modernity often seemed haunted by remnants of the premodern past, the nation’s newly heteronormative culture was unable and perhaps unwilling to expunge completely the recent memory of a male homosocial past now read as perverse. Two-Timing Modernity integrates queer, feminist, and narratological approaches to show how key works by Japanese male authors—Mori Ōgai, Natsume Sōseki, Hamao Shirō, and Mishima Yukio—encompassed both a straight future and a queer past by employing new narrative techniques to stage tensions between two forms of temporality: the forward-looking time of modernization and normative development, and the “perverse” time of nostalgia, recursion, and repetition."
Author: Eva Tsoi Hung Hung Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317640470 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 294
Book Description
Translation Studies, one of the fastest developing fields in the humanities since the early 1980s, has so far been Euro-centric both in its theoretical explorations and in its historical grounding. One of the major reasons for this is the unavailability of reliable data and systematic analysis of translation activities in non-Eurpean cultures. While a number of scholars in the Western tradition of translation studies have become increasingly aware of this bias and its problems, practically indicates that the burden of addressing such defiencies and imbalances should be on the shoulders of scholars who are conversant with the non-Western translation traditions and capable of engaging in much-nedded basic research. This book brings together eleven scholars with expertise in different Asian translation traditions, who highlight language and cultural environments as well as perceptions and modes of operation often different from those in the Western tradition. Their contributions enhance our understanding of the various elements that influence the transfer of knowledge across cultures and provide invaluable data for the study of translation as a force for cultural development and cultural planning. Contributors include Eva Hung, Judy Wakabayashi, Lawrence Wong, Yoshihiro Osawa, Teresa Hyun, Keith Taylor, Rita Kothari, Doris Jedamski, Raniela Barbaza and Bill Cummings.
Author: Michael Dylan Foster Publisher: Univ of California Press ISBN: 0520253620 Category : History Languages : en Pages : 310
Book Description
Monsters known as yōkai have long haunted the Japanese cultural landscape. This history of the strange and mysterious in Japan seeks out these creatures in folklore, encyclopedias, literature, art, science, games, manga, magazines and movies, exploring their meanings in the Japanese imagination over three centuries.
Author: Publisher: Tuttle Publishing ISBN: 1462900763 Category : Literary Collections Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
Readers of medieval Japanese literature have long been captivated by its romance and philosophy. In this volume, two acclaimed thirteenth-century classics, The Ten Foot Square Hut and Tales of the Heike, are presented in translation. The Ten Foot Square Hut (the Hojoki) takes its title from a four and half mat sized Tearoom, the size of the hut in which the hero of the story, Chomei, lives. It offers the memorable reflections of this sensitive aristocrat who has retired from a world filled with violent contrasts and cataclysms to find refuge in nature and Buddhist philosophy. Though this narrative was written 700 years ago, its message continues to have an astonishing timeliness. Tales of the Heike (selections from the Heike Monogatari) deals with the same period but from a different point of view, supplying the background of Chomei's meditations. It is a collection of episodic stories, written in poetical prose, related to the rise and fall of the Taira clan in twelfth-century Kyoto, one of the great turning points in Japanese history. The translations, by the late Professor A. L. Sandler, are complemented by an informed Introduction on the background to these masterpieces of Japanese literature.
Author: Naomi Charlotte Fukuzawa Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1040154468 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
This book examines the transnational phenomenon of Japonisme in the exoticist and “autoexoticist” literature of the late nineteenth century. Focusing on the way in which reciprocal processes of transcultural acquisition – by Japan and from Japan – were portrayed in the medium of literature, the book illustrates how literary Japonisme and the wider processes whereby Japan, with its alien exotic culture and unique refined aestheticism, was absorbing Western civilization in its own way in the late nineteenth century at the same time as the phenomenon of Japonisme was occurring in Western fine arts, which were inspired by traditional Japanese artistic practices. Specifically, the book focuses on the literary works of Lafcadio Hearn and Pierre Loti, who travelled from France and America, respectively, to Japan, and Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki, who in turn went, respectively, to Germany and England from Japan. Exploring the eclectic hybridity of Japan’s modernization during the late nineteenth century, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese Studies, Postcolonial Studies and Comparative Literature.
Author: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317044258 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 558
Book Description
From vampires and demons to ghosts and zombies, interest in monsters in literature, film, and popular culture has never been stronger. This concise Encyclopedia provides scholars and students with a comprehensive and authoritative A-Z of monsters throughout the ages. It is the first major reference book on monsters for the scholarly market. Over 200 entries written by experts in the field are accompanied by an overview introduction by the editor. Generic entries such as 'ghost' and 'vampire' are cross-listed with important specific manifestations of that monster. In addition to monsters appearing in English-language literature and film, the Encyclopedia also includes significant monsters in Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, African and Middle Eastern traditions. Alphabetically organized, the entries each feature suggestions for further reading. The Ashgate Encyclopedia of Literary and Cinematic Monsters is an invaluable resource for all students and scholars and an essential addition to library reference shelves.
Author: Soseki Natsume
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Author: Marvin Marcus
Author: Keith J. Vincent
Author: Eva Tsoi Hung Hung
Author: Michael Dylan Foster
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Author: Wm. Theodore De Bary
Author: Naomi Charlotte Fukuzawa
Author: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock