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This study is a theoretical reconsideration of the concept of the “tragic” combined with detailed analyses of Japanese literary texts. Inspired by contemporary critical discourse (especially the works by such thinkers as Theodor Adorno, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams), the author challenges both exotic and postmodern representation of Japanese culture as “the other” of the West. By examining the social backgrounds of artists’ endeavors to create new literary forms, the author unveils a rich tradition of tragic literature that, unlike the dominant local tradition of naturalism, has registered the unbridgeable gap between universal ideals and social values at a particular historical moment.
“Fate, Nature and Literary Form is a concise and engaging book about how tragic art manifests in different times and places and what role critical theory can play in our understanding of this genre’s power and appeal… In this compact yet powerful work, Nishi argues that great art can never be merely the expression of the timeless essence of a particular culture but must be part of a forward movement leading to enhanced human relationships…[The book] offer[s] a unique and innovative blend of theoretical musings and provocative insights into the contributions of several major Japanese literary figures whose work cannot be meaningfully interpreted apart from the historical context in which they are rooted. I applaud this effort and find the book both rewarding and stimulating.”
– Ronald P. Loftus, Japanese Language and Literature (Vol. 56, No. 1)
Kinya Nishi is a professor of aesthetics and intellectual history at Konan University, Japan. He has published books and articles exploring the discursive formation of cultural tradition in the context of modern Japan. He has held visiting research positions at the University of Sussex and Queen Mary, University of London.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Preface
Part One: The Historical Development of the Tragic in Japanese Literature
1. Approaching the Idea of Tragedy in the Non-West
2. Tragic Dramaturgy in Classical Japanese Theater
a.) Zeami
b.) Chikamatsu Monzaemon
3. Tragic Individualism in Modern Japanese Fiction
a.) Natsume Sōseki
b.) Ōe Kenzaburō
Part Two: The Dialectics of Nature in Japanese Intellectual History
4. The Dilemma of Multicultural Aesthetics
5. Japanese Modernity and the Cultural Configuration of Nature
a.) Naturalism and National Identity
b.) From Protest to Conformism
c.) The Return of the Mother in Postwar Criticism
Part Three: Social Crisis and Literary Form
6. Matsuo Bashō’s Realism
7. Hiroshima and the Poetics of Death
8. Narrative after Fukushima
Bibliography
Index