Fate, Nature, and Literary Form

Download or read book Fate, Nature, and Literary Form written by Kinya Nishi and published by Academic Studies PRess. This book was released on 2021-03-09 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study is a theoretical reconsideration of the concept of the “tragic” combined with detailed analyses of Japanese literary texts. Inspired by contemporary critical discourse (especially the works by such thinkers as Theodor Adorno, Fredric Jameson and Raymond Williams), the author challenges both exotic and postmodern representation of Japanese culture as “the other” of the West. By examining the social backgrounds of artists’ endeavors to create new literary forms, the author unveils a rich tradition of tragic literature that, unlike the dominant local tradition of naturalism, has registered the unbridgeable gap between universal ideals and social values at a particular historical moment.