Japanese Literature

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Japanese Literature

Aquest tema està marcat com "inactiu": L'últim missatge és de fa més de 90 dies. Podeu revifar-lo enviant una resposta.

1rm6532
ag. 2, 2006, 10:56 am

Has anyone seen the booklist at http://www.f.waseda.jp/mjewel/jlit/literary_history/concise_modern_timeline.html

?

I find it interesting mainly for including some very contemporary titles but also for someone being prepared to put their neck on the line with some older stuff.

Any opinions? Some of the recent ones haven't been translated yet but I guess most of the others have been at some time or other.

PS Any other opinions about Japanese literature now we have a literature thread?

2moondust Primer missatge
ag. 4, 2006, 5:05 am

Thanx for that link. Very interesting. Personally I've been going through the newer stuff and leaving the older stuff until later. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on that's written after aprox 1945. Sooner or later though I'll venture into the older stuff. :)

3asquonk
ag. 9, 2006, 12:15 am

Modernist, particularly free verse, Japanese poetry isn't generally all that well known here, "here" being the Bay Area. Tamura Ryuichi is one of my favourite poets, but he's not necessarily the most popular one, although he's quite well known, comparatively speaking - Tanikawa Shuntaro (who I really loathe) and Hagiwara Sakutaro (already on your list) are probably the best known of the bunch.

Yoshioka Minoru's another of my favourites.

4signature103 Primer missatge
ag. 11, 2006, 12:18 am

The list could be bigger. Plenty of fiction by particular authors not noted. It seems there is an attempt to limit one work for any one year.

And Japanese poetry is not well covered either.

5rm6532
ag. 12, 2006, 8:56 pm

It probably could be better signature103 - certainly I don't know enough about Japanese literature right now to say whether it's the best selection. On the other hand I don't know of any lists that are anywhere near as big, though no doubt there is something in Japanese somewhere. I don't have the patience to surf in Japanese.

If you know of any other similar lists please let me know

6signature103
ag. 13, 2006, 12:14 am

a reader's guide to japanese literature is a good place to start. But we are talking about a book now. On the net I used to run a page called 'jlit' but I have given that up so there really isn't any other source as you say.

I would be more than happy to make a list though if I can find the time.

7asquonk
ag. 14, 2006, 12:02 am

Not to ask for more time than you have, signature103, but I'd love to see such a list. My own knowledge has been really spotty, mostly coming from what I can find browsing bookstores.

For a while I was telling myself that I needed to go to my local campus library and compile a list myself, but my reading veered away from Japanese literature a few years ago . . .

If I get around to doing that, I'll post the information on this board.

8signature103
Editat: ag. 14, 2006, 5:18 am

Actually what I really didn't like about the list is that some important works by, say, Kawabata and Mishima were not featured. Plus many works listed do not have English translations.

What this means is this list was written for Japanese literature students and not for Japanese Literature readers.

Here is a list of writers who works are available in English. It was compiled from a reader's guide to japanese literature. It was a list I made for my own studies (but I couldn't find the original Word document so I scanned an old hard copy I had. The order is of birth so it gives an approximate overview of time of influence:

Mori Ogai 1862-1922
Futabatei Shimei 1864-1909
Masaoka Shiki 1867-1902
Natsume Soseki 1867-1916
Koda Rohan 1867-1947
Higuchi Ichiyo 1872-1896
Shimazaki Toson 1872-1943
Arishima Takeo 1878-1923
Nagai Kafu 1879-1959
Santoka 1882-1940
Takamura Kotaro 1883-1956
Shiga Naoya 1883-1971
Ishikawa Takuboku 1886-1912
Hagiwara Sakutaro 1886-1942
Tanizaki Jun'ichiro 1886-1965
Akutagawa Ryunosuke 1892-1927
Miyazawa Kenji 1896-1933
Yokumitsu Riichi 1898-1947
Ibuse Masuji 1898-1993
Kawabata Yasunari 1899-1972
Kobayashi Takiji 1903-1933
Inoue Yasushi 1907-1991
Dasai Osamu 1909-1948
Ooka Shohei 1909-1988
Endo Shusaku 1923-1996
Abe Kobo 1924-1993
Mishima Yukio 1925-1970
Ariyoshi Sawako 1931-1984
Oe Kenzaburo 1935-

I will probably make a list of works based around these writers sometime.

9rm6532
ag. 14, 2006, 9:11 pm

Thanks for the list signature103. I'd certainly be interested in seeing the works you recommend (more, more, more).

There may well be important works missing from the list above but I'm trying to read books in Japanese now so I actually find the idea of untranslated works quite exciting. I also liked the fact the list had some very recent choices (not unconnected to the translation issue).

It would be interesting to see this kind of list (or any quality top 100 books list) written by a Japanese person.

I'm off on holiday for a couple of weeks so I may not follow this board closely but I am interested in further Japanese literature discussion.

10The_Holy_Terror
ag. 14, 2006, 10:10 pm

Hi, hopefully you guys don't mind me asking here, but I'd like to ask for some recommendations for light reading. I'm thinking something of the sci-fi/fantasy or romance vein in order to work on my understanding of written Japanese and beef up my vocab. I'm starting my third semester of Japanese in the fall and I'd like to get some sort of head start.

I'm thinking very very light reading, maybe even something for young readers or teens. I've been importing a couple of manga every now and then, but I'd like to try some novels.

Right now I've got 今日�?�らマ�?��?��??自由業! - Kyou Kara Maruma no Tsuku Jyuugyou! on order. (Sorry, can't figure out how to make it a touchstone without using the messed up Japanese characters.) I really only ordered it because I love the anime, but I'm hoping it's easy enough to understand.

Any ideas? Thanks!

11maryb
ag. 15, 2006, 12:57 am

Here are a couple of recommendations if you want to practice reading. The Power Japanese series has two readers that include vocabulary and grammar notes: Strange But True, a true-life Japanese Reader, and Read Real Japanese. And a good book for reading actual literature is Breaking into Japanese Literature. You can get audio files for this one online.

As for manga, I love the "What's Michael?" series in the original Japanese. (Sorry, I haven't added them to LT yet...) You don't have to be a cat-lover to enjoy them.

12signature103
Editat: ag. 15, 2006, 6:43 am

rm6532, I have a list of 500 important works in Japanese, but it would take me a while to translate the titles.

Yes, you are right about the difference between a Westerns list and a Japanese's list. They would (or do) differ especially in the major minor works department.

I'll see what I can do. Plus a more up to date list is needed I think. Some of the more recent works are now available in translation but weren't listed in the latest rimer. I have to admit I haven't kept up with jlit since I swapped reseach areas (applied linguistics is now my are of study).

sdoerfler, how about "There was a Knock" by Hoshi Shin'ichi? It is a kondansha paperback. If you can get your hand on it. Easy teen stuff that I studied in a summer 3rd year class. And maryb's recommendations are good if not better because they are readily available. Happy reading.

13The_Holy_Terror
ag. 16, 2006, 12:57 pm

Thanks for the suggestions. It looks like the first Power Japanese book is out of print. The second one has another version so I'll probably pick that one up. I had looked at Breaking into Japanese Literature before and I'm glad it's recommended. Thanks again!

14asquonk
Editat: ag. 20, 2006, 7:08 pm

signature103 - thanks for the list!

Something I was wondering about is that many of the 20th century authors (which is where most of my reading has been) seem modernist in a very particular sort of way - a widely accepted one. I can't put my finger on it very well, but definitely Symbolist/Surrealist in tendency, with some borrowings from the American confessional/individualist version of mainstream modernism (Mishima, for example).

Is there any sort of countercurrent to that which isn't visible here in the US? I don't mean "postmodernist" writers like Murakami or Banana Yoshimoto (not sure about spelling); I was thinking more along the lines of formalist experimentation, either predicated upon a particular politics or otherwise. Kazuko Shiraishi, maybe? The reason I'm wondering is that these lists seem to be the equivalent of, say, Pulitzer or Booker listings in Anglo countries, and there's plenty of experimental work in those countries that gets ignored by those conventions and their attendant institutions - both in terms of publishing and funding.

15signature103
ag. 23, 2006, 7:26 am

asquonk, this is heavy stuff you are asking.

Kazuko Shiraishi definitely with her Japanese Beat. But in general Jlit was very much in the early days was trying to play catch up to Western lit. Realism and Naturalism being the dominant forms. And as you said, Surrealism in 1920s played a great influence.

For someone more contemporary like tanikawa shuntaro (he once bought me coffee) who is the extreme master of word play yet highly accessable. He has written several hundred volumes of poetry to date. But has quit since to move on other projects.

I'm overseas at the moment it is difficult for me to give a fuller answer. Will talk more when I get back home early next week.

16udey Primer missatge
ag. 26, 2006, 4:06 am

Aquest missatge ha estat suprimit pel seu autor.

17udey
ag. 26, 2006, 4:08 am

I don't know how I read anything other than what was written by Haruki Murakami.

He is incredible. There are people like those he describes in the book and it is scary and thrilling.

He is more than a celebrity author. A Nobel prize winner in waiting. Cheers to Murakami.

18asquonk
ag. 31, 2006, 10:49 pm

Udey - I love Murakami too, though my wife loves him way more than I do. I left him out because I was wondering about people who publish outside of mass-market publishing. I think Naipaul's wonderful but he isn't exactly small press, avant-garde, experimental or whatever term you use to describe it.

signature103 -

"For someone more contemporary like tanikawa shuntaro (he once bought me coffee) who is the extreme master of word play yet highly accessable. He has written several hundred volumes of poetry to date. But has quit since to move on other projects."

Don't read what I said earlier about him then ^^;

19udey
set. 1, 2006, 12:38 am

Yes indeed Haruki Murakami is a bestseller in mass publishing.

But he brings a unique quality to his writing which is uncomparable to living authors. His short stories as well as novels seem to break all rules of standard story writing, in the sense that his characters do anything, and it is all very unpredictable.

Accessibility-wise, I would say he is not someone you could just go and say hi to. He left Japan due to his popularity there (he couldn't step out of his home). Also having been to Princeton and got such critical acclaim he is definitely high profile celeb author.

But as a person how he is I would have no idea. There are some good details on him and interviews at Guardian Unlimited site - http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Actually that's where I discovered him :-)

20signature103
set. 2, 2006, 7:30 am

asquonk - Oops.

Anyway, I was thinking about poetry again and I forgot to mention one who has very few translations in English - Ito Hiromi. I translated some of her stuff for a class I took and what my professor Leith Morton (An Anthology of Contemporary Japanese Poetry) has published is all that is out there.

Highly underrated but well worth the effort.

21rm6532
set. 4, 2006, 5:54 am

sdoerfler, the first book I read in Japanese that I hadn't read in English previously was 夏の庭 only on LT in its translation 'The Friends'* by Kazumi Yumoto. I heard it was a popular book for Japanese elementary school students and it must have been reasonably easy because I remember understanding most of it.

Anyway it is a good read about three twelve year old boys and their developing relationship with an old man they start spying on because they want to witness his death. In movie pitch terms I remember reading that it was a Japanese 'Stand By Me' somewhere. I strongly recommend it.

*Can't seem to get the touchstone to work.

22Lunawhimsy
oct. 13, 2006, 10:27 am

Aquest missatge ha estat suprimit pel seu autor.

23keigu
març 3, 2007, 2:11 pm

Asquonk-sama,
Re:the loathed Tanikawa Shuntaro. The Charlie Brown translations that got him started are over-rated but you gotta admit his "iruka inai ka" type word play nonsense ditties work for children. I object most of all to the number of lines he who makes a living by wordiness gave in praise of silence.
Re: Hagiwara Sakutaro, i am a big fan not of his poetry but of his essay on buson which discovers what makes buson's ku so good. That he could do this even though he had many details wrong (that even i caught right away) proves he is a great literary critic. Has anyone translated that essay and, if so, is it a good translation with good notes?

Signature103-sama. And his wife once made me coffee.

Minasama, i recall reading murakami and thinking, good, he likes ideas but i do not want that style. i prefer nozaka's prose, but the content is a broken record. are there any contemporary writers who are closer to say tanizaki?

24gscottmoore
set. 27, 2007, 10:27 pm

I've slowly worked my way through A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature over the past 14 years or so. It has been one of the great experiences of my life. Not complete thought.

I note also that this might be the current location of the site listed in the note in this thread:

http://www.jlit.net/literary_history/concise_modern_timeline.html

I'm unsure since I didn't see that one.

In any case the overarching environment, http://www.jlit.net/ is very impressive indeed.

Have you assembled a more comprehensive list? Part of my idle-time activities is producing a database with all the books that Rimer refers to in the reader's guide. Many of the books he references seem to be selected based on the availability in English which is good. It fact is the point of the book. But I'm unsure if anyone has an interest in this, really.

-- Gerry

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