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
76 - Women’s fiction in the postwar era
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
The immediate effects of the war on women's writing can be seen by looking at publishing statistics. One of the best-known short stories of the postwar period is Hayashi Fumiko's Hone, about a middle-class war widow, who is left as the sole support of her young daughter as well as her bedridden brother. Another story published in 1946, Otete tsunaide, takes up the problem of children orphaned by the war. The female writers who attained prominence in the second half of the 1950s were generally of a higher social class and better educated than their predecessors: Enchi Fumiko and Koda Aya. Enchi's fiction is notable for its deployment of the fantastic as a mode for revealing the psychological depth of women's inner life. A final trend in postwar women's writing deserves mention: Oba Minako and Kometani Fumiko, both of whom began their literary careers while living in the United States and writing about Japanese characters coping within unfamiliar cultural currents.
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- The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature , pp. 737 - 747Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015