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
65 - Natsume Sōseki and the theory and practice of literature
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
Natsume Soseki has intrigued scholars and readers for more than a century. He created an indisputably modern literature while appropriating techniques and practices that predated modernity. Soseki's Bungakuron represents an attempt to produce a scientific theory of world literature, valid for all places and all times. Soseki's use of quantitative language to define literature allowed him to break with previously dominant discourses of literature. In 1910 Soseki published Mon, the first trilogy. Higan sugi made, published after a nearly fatal bout with stomach ulcers, opens the second trilogy with another self-consciously experimental work. Kokoro, Soseki's best-known novel in the West, completes the second trilogy. In 1915 Soseki published the autobiographical Michikusa. The major turning point in Soseki's reception came in the 1970s and 80s, when a new generation of critics published influential new interpretations that again transformed Soseki. No longer the hero of the modernization of Japanese literature, he was now celebrated as the great critic of Japanese modernity.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature , pp. 634 - 640Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015
- 1
- Cited by