The Politics and Literature Debate in Postwar Japanese Criticism 1945-52

Download or read book The Politics and Literature Debate in Postwar Japanese Criticism 1945-52 written by Professor Atsuko Ueda and published by . This book was released on 2017-05-26 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the wake of its defeat in World War II, as Japan was forced to remake itself from "empire" to "nation" in the face of an uncertain global situation, literature and literary criticism emerged as highly contested sites. Today, this remarkable period holds rich potential for opening new dialogue between scholars in Japan and North America as we rethink the historical and contemporary significance of a number of important issues, including the meaning of the American occupation both inside and outside of Japan, the shifting semiotics of "literature" and "politics," and the origins of crucial ideological weapons of the cultural Cold War. This collection features works by Japanese intellectuals written in the immediate postwar period. These writings--many appearing in English for the first time--offer explorations into the social, political, and philosophical debates among Japanese literary elites that shaped the country's literary culture in the aftermath of defeat.