Dennis Washburn traces the changing character of Japanese
national identity in the works of six major authors: Ueda Akinari,
Natsume S?seki, Mori ?gai, Yokomitsu Riichi, ?oka Shohei, and
Mishima Yukio. By focusing on certain interconnected themes,
Washburn illuminates the contradictory desires of a nation trapped
between emulating the West and preserving the traditions of
Asia.
Washburn begins with Ueda's "Ugetsu monogatari" ( "Tales of
Moonlight and Rain") and its preoccupation with the distant past, a
sense of loss, and the connection between values and identity. He
then considers the use of narrative realism and the metaphor of
translation in Soseki's "Sanshiro"; the relationship between
ideology and selfhood in Ogai's "Seinen"; Yokomitsu Riichi's
attempt to synthesize the national and the cosmopolitan; Ooka
Shohei's post-World War II representations of the ethical and
spiritual crises confronting his age; and Mishima's innovative play
with the aesthetics of the inauthentic and the artistry of
kitsch.
Washburn's brilliant analysis teases out common themes
concerning the illustration of moral and aesthetic values, the
crucial role of autonomy and authenticity in defining notions of
culture, the impact of cultural translation on ideas of nation and
subjectivity, the ethics of identity, and the hybrid quality of
modern Japanese society. He pinpoints the persistent anxiety that
influenced these authors' writings, a struggle to translate
rhetorical forms of Western literature while preserving elements of
the pre-Meiji tradition.
A unique combination of intellectual history and critical
literary analysis, "Translating Mount Fuji" recounts the evolution
of a conflict that inspired remarkable literary experimentation and
achievement.
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