what is Japanese literature?
Like many literary systems in eastern Asia, Japanese literature derives from the Chinese one. As it is believed, Japanese islands knew no system of writing before the introduction of kanji (logographic Chinese characters, used also to write the Japanese language). What is curious, the process of introduction of Chinese cultural patterns, in the 5th century AD, was due to immigration rather military conquest. At the end of the 8th century, the Heian period (794-1185) brought about the development of more idiosyncratic modes of expression, including the invention of kana scripts (the name may refer to various syllabaries used to capture the Japanese phonological units, morae). Heian literature, with its evergreen classic, Genji Monogatari (The Tale of Genji) is perhaps the most lively corpus of medieval texts, with the greatest productivity in contemporary culture, anywhere in the world.
The following, sombre Kamakura period (1185-1333), with its many civil wars, is relatively lesser known. Nonetheless, it is the period of the formation of the warrior aristocracy that is so often treated as emblematic of the Japanese culture. The subsequent Muromachi period (1333-1603) brought about, to the contrary, the dissolution of that aristocratic culture and the advent of popular forms of expression. It was a time of new poetic blossoming and the origin of many new genres, such as renga (linked verse). Also Noh theatre derives from the popular tradition.
The peaceful Tokugawa shogunate led to another golden age in Japanese history, the Edo period (1603-1868). It was the time of the early modern theatrical form, kabuki, as well as the famous haiku poetry. Lesser known, but also fascinating tradition born in this period is the genre of ukiyozōshi ("the floating world"), with its humorous tales set in the pleasure quarters. Quite a different body of writing is resumed under the designation rangaku. It is the fruit of an intellectual movement wishing to absorb the Dutch (and western) knowledge in all domains, from anatomy to linguistics.
The Meiji period is know as a period of opening of Japan to exterior influences. This is from 1868 on that Japanese literature can be bent to fit into the western grid of literary periodization, with such concepts as Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, even if the precise chronology and aesthetical choices obviously diverge from the original, West European pattern of literary movements. Just to give an example, Japanese Naturalism brings about not the objective "photography" novel, as postulated by Zola, but the "I novel", designated Watakushi-shōsetu, in which the writers tried to capture their own inner states. Some decades later, this line of experimentation will bring the first Japanese Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari Kawabata, reputed as an author of psychological fiction.
The post-war period, in spite of military defeat, brought about a great cultural expansion, as we are all aware, because we all have read at least Murakami. But at the same time, few people realise how diversified Japanese literary tradition actually is: from its tiniest little jewels such as haiku to its great prose cycles that expand over hundreds and even thousands of pages.
The following, sombre Kamakura period (1185-1333), with its many civil wars, is relatively lesser known. Nonetheless, it is the period of the formation of the warrior aristocracy that is so often treated as emblematic of the Japanese culture. The subsequent Muromachi period (1333-1603) brought about, to the contrary, the dissolution of that aristocratic culture and the advent of popular forms of expression. It was a time of new poetic blossoming and the origin of many new genres, such as renga (linked verse). Also Noh theatre derives from the popular tradition.
The peaceful Tokugawa shogunate led to another golden age in Japanese history, the Edo period (1603-1868). It was the time of the early modern theatrical form, kabuki, as well as the famous haiku poetry. Lesser known, but also fascinating tradition born in this period is the genre of ukiyozōshi ("the floating world"), with its humorous tales set in the pleasure quarters. Quite a different body of writing is resumed under the designation rangaku. It is the fruit of an intellectual movement wishing to absorb the Dutch (and western) knowledge in all domains, from anatomy to linguistics.
The Meiji period is know as a period of opening of Japan to exterior influences. This is from 1868 on that Japanese literature can be bent to fit into the western grid of literary periodization, with such concepts as Romanticism, Realism and Naturalism, even if the precise chronology and aesthetical choices obviously diverge from the original, West European pattern of literary movements. Just to give an example, Japanese Naturalism brings about not the objective "photography" novel, as postulated by Zola, but the "I novel", designated Watakushi-shōsetu, in which the writers tried to capture their own inner states. Some decades later, this line of experimentation will bring the first Japanese Nobel Prize winner, Yasunari Kawabata, reputed as an author of psychological fiction.
The post-war period, in spite of military defeat, brought about a great cultural expansion, as we are all aware, because we all have read at least Murakami. But at the same time, few people realise how diversified Japanese literary tradition actually is: from its tiniest little jewels such as haiku to its great prose cycles that expand over hundreds and even thousands of pages.
I have readYoko Ogawa, Chinmoku Hakubutsukan 沈黙博物館 | The Museum of Silence (2000)
Shusaku Endo, The Samurai 侍 (1980) Kaizan Nakazato, Dai-bosatsu tōge 大菩薩峠 | The Sword of Doom |
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