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The Youth of Things - Life and Death in the Age of Kajii Motojiro (Paperback)
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The Youth of Things - Life and Death in the Age of Kajii Motojiro (Paperback)
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When he died from tuberculosis at the age of thirty-one, Kajii
Motojir? had written only twenty short stories. Yet his life and
work, it is argued here, sheds light on a significant moment in
Japanese history and, ultimately, adds to our understanding of how
modern Japanese identity developed. By the time Kajii began to
write in the mid-1920s there was heated debate among his peers over
“legitimate” forms of literary expression: Japanese Romantics
questioned the value of a western-inspired version of modernity;
others were influenced by Marxist proletarian literature or
modernist experimentation; still others tried to create a
distinctly Japanese fictional style that concentrated on
first-person perspective, the so-called “I-novel.” There was a
general sense that Japan needed to reinvent itself, but writers and
artists were at odds over what form this reinvention should take.
Throughout his career, Kajii drew from these various camps but
belonged to none of them, making his work an invaluable indicator
of a culture in crisis and transition. The Youth of Things is the
first full-length book devoted to Kajii Motojir?. It brings
together English translations of nearly all his completed stories
with an analysis of his literature in the context of several major
themes that locate him in 1920s Japan. In particular, Dodd links
the writer’s work with the physical body: Kajii’s subjective
literary presence was grounded first and foremost in his
TB-stricken physical body, hence one cannot be studied without the
other. His concerns with health and mortality drove him to play a
central role in constructing a language for modern literature and
to offer new insights into ideas that intrigued so many other
Taish? intellectuals and writers. In addition, Kajii’s early
years as a writer were strongly influenced by the cosmopolitan
humanism of the White Birch (Shirakaba) school, but by the time his
final work was published in the early 1930s, an environment of
greater cultural introspection was beginning to take root,
encapsulated in the expression “return to Japan” (nihon kaiki).
Only a few years separate these two moments in time, but they
represent a profound shift in the aspirations and expectations of a
whole generation of writers. Through a study of Kajii’s writing,
this book offers some sense of the demise of one cultural moment
and the creation of another.
General
Imprint: |
University of Hawaii Press
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Country of origin: |
United States |
Release date: |
December 2016 |
Authors: |
Stephen Dodd
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Dimensions: |
229 x 152mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Paperback
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Pages: |
304 |
ISBN-13: |
978-0-8248-6768-3 |
Categories: |
Books
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LSN: |
0-8248-6768-8 |
Barcode: |
9780824867683 |
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