Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Book part
- A note on Romanization and conventions
- Glossary
- General introduction
- Part I The ancient period (beginnings to 794)
- Part II The Heian period (794–1185)
- Part III The medieval period (1185–1600)
- Part IV The Edo period (1600–1867)
- Part V The modern period (1868 to present)
- 56 Introduction: nation building, literary culture, and language
- 57 Kanshibun in the Meiji period and beyond
- 58 Translated fiction, political fiction
- 59 Newspaper serials in the late nineteenth century
- 60 Translation, vernacular style, and the Westernesque femme fatale in modern Japanese literature
- 61 The rise of modern women’s literature
- 62 Melodrama, family romance, and the novel at the turn of the century
- 63 Modern Japanese poetry to the 1910s
- 64 Between the Western and the traditional: Mori Ōgai, Nagai Kafū, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
- 65 Natsume Sōseki and the theory and practice of literature
- 66 A new era of women writers
- 67 Literary marketplace, politics, and history: 1900s–1940s
- 68 Canonization and popularization: anthologies and literary prizes
- 69 Colonialism, translation, literature: Takahama Kyoshi’s passage to Korea
- 70 Primitivism and imperial literature of Taiwan and the South Seas
- 71 From empire to nation: the spatial imaginary of the 1920s to early 1950s
- 72 Japanese literature and cinema from the 1910s to the 1950s
- 73 Modern drama
- 74 Modern poetry: 1910s to the postwar period
- 75 Trends in postwar literature, 1945–1970s
- 76 Women’s fiction in the postwar era
- 77 The emergence of girls’ manga and girls’ culture
- 78 Modern Japanese literature from Okinawa
- 79 Postwar Zainichi writings: politics, language, and identity
- 80 Contemporary Japanese fiction
- Bibliography of English secondary sources and translations
- Index
80 - Contemporary Japanese fiction
from Part V - The modern period (1868 to present)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2016
Book contents
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Contributors
- Book part
- A note on Romanization and conventions
- Glossary
- General introduction
- Part I The ancient period (beginnings to 794)
- Part II The Heian period (794–1185)
- Part III The medieval period (1185–1600)
- Part IV The Edo period (1600–1867)
- Part V The modern period (1868 to present)
- 56 Introduction: nation building, literary culture, and language
- 57 Kanshibun in the Meiji period and beyond
- 58 Translated fiction, political fiction
- 59 Newspaper serials in the late nineteenth century
- 60 Translation, vernacular style, and the Westernesque femme fatale in modern Japanese literature
- 61 The rise of modern women’s literature
- 62 Melodrama, family romance, and the novel at the turn of the century
- 63 Modern Japanese poetry to the 1910s
- 64 Between the Western and the traditional: Mori Ōgai, Nagai Kafū, and Tanizaki Jun’ichirō
- 65 Natsume Sōseki and the theory and practice of literature
- 66 A new era of women writers
- 67 Literary marketplace, politics, and history: 1900s–1940s
- 68 Canonization and popularization: anthologies and literary prizes
- 69 Colonialism, translation, literature: Takahama Kyoshi’s passage to Korea
- 70 Primitivism and imperial literature of Taiwan and the South Seas
- 71 From empire to nation: the spatial imaginary of the 1920s to early 1950s
- 72 Japanese literature and cinema from the 1910s to the 1950s
- 73 Modern drama
- 74 Modern poetry: 1910s to the postwar period
- 75 Trends in postwar literature, 1945–1970s
- 76 Women’s fiction in the postwar era
- 77 The emergence of girls’ manga and girls’ culture
- 78 Modern Japanese literature from Okinawa
- 79 Postwar Zainichi writings: politics, language, and identity
- 80 Contemporary Japanese fiction
- Bibliography of English secondary sources and translations
- Index
Summary
A number of established writers from the postwar period continued to be active well into the 1980s, providing a limited sense of continuity to the literary scene. In 1975, Nakagami Kenji became the first writer born after the Pacific War to win the Akutagawa Prize. By 1990, Oe Kenzaburo worried that serious literature and a literary readership have gone into a chronic decline, while a new tendency has emerged over the last several years. This new phenomenon is an economic one, reflected in the fact that each of the novels of certain young writers like Murakami Haruki and Yoshimoto Banana sell several thousand copies. Yoshimoto's debut novel Kitchin laid out many of the serious themes that she has continued to examine throughout her career. Haruki's influence is pronounced, and share his attitudes toward the importance of storytelling and the creation of fantasy worlds bearing little resemblance to contemporary Japan. Recent novels have dealt with unsettling aspects of contemporary Japanese culture.
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- Information
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature , pp. 760 - 767Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015