Japanese Literature 1900-1950

The period 1900-1950 in Japan spans three distinct Imperial eras - Meiji, Taishō and Shōwa, reflected in the literature of those times.

The Meiji Era (1868-1912) was one of rapid modernisation, especially through the incorporation of Western thought and industry into Japanese life. Natsume Sōseki 's (1867-1916) masterpiece, Kokoro (1914), is a powerful moral tale of a young man and his ‘Sensei’ (‘teacher’).

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) came of age in Japan’s more cosmopolitan Taishō Era (1912-1926). An early disciple of Sōseki, in 1927 he wrote Kappa, an Alice in Wonderland-like tale which has been read variously as a children’s story and a satire of Japanese society.

Jun’ichirō Tanizaki (1886-1965) lived on for much of the Shōwa Era (1926-1989), which encompasses Japan’s pre-war militarisation, wartime catastrophe and post-war success. In The Makioka Sisters (1942-48), Tanizaki chose to write a nostalgic family saga about a narrow section of pre-war upper-middle class society.

While The Makioka Sisters reads almost like a classic English novel, nobel laureate Yasunari Kawabata’s (1899-1972) Snow Country (1935-1948) is as concise and evocative as a haiku poem, full of images of startling beauty, juxtaposition of opposites and tantalisingly obscure emotions.

What will we cover?

• Biography: autobiographical elements in the novels; being a writer in Japan

• Style: a blend of East and West; Japanese indirection and ‘obscurity’

• Characters: tortured male souls; women of beauty and strength

• Context: rapid change and Westernization; rich heritage and dying traditions

By the end of this course you should be able to...

• Discuss the development of the Japanese novel 1900-1950 in an informed manner

• Understand the autobiographical and contextual background to these works

• Recognise the techniques and styles of some of the most important writers of the period

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Please buy a borrow a copy of the following, ideally in the stated editions:

• Natsume Sōseki, Kokoro (1914) (Penguin Classics)

• Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Kappa (1927) (Pushkin Classics)

• Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, The Makioka Sisters (1948) (Vintage Classics)

• Yasunari Kawabata, Snow Country (1948) (Penguin Modern Classics)