Yoshimoto Banana as a Modern Representative of Japanese Literature DOCX

Title	Yoshimoto Banana as a Modern Representative of Japanese Literature
Author	Akylina Printziou
Pages	8
File Size	23.6 KB
File Type	DOCX
Total Downloads	402
Total Views	683

Summary

Yoshimoto Banana as a Modern Representative of Japanese Literature Akylina Printziou “No matter how unconventional [young people] get, they’re just repeating what others before them have done.” Mishima Yukio, After the Banquet The end of the 19th and the entirety of the 20th century have been period...

Description

Yoshimoto Banana as a Modern Representative of Japanese Literature Akylina Printziou "No matter how unconventional [young people] get, they're just repeating what others before them have done." Mishima Yukio, After the Banquet The end of the 19th and the entirety of the 20th century have been periods of utmost importance for the Japanese cultural and general landscape. The advent of modernisation and imminent Westernisation, the two World Wars and the "threat of nuclear annihilation" (Harvey 13; Roquet 102-103) are crucial events which influenced and shaped Japanese culture and, by extension, its literary production, to a great extent. Every generation seeks literary voices who will be representative of their countries and echo their new experiences and Japan is not exempt from that need. In this essay, I argue that a well-known contemporary Japanese female author, Yoshimoto Banana (b. 1964), can be considered as representative of modern Japanese literature, despite the occasional reproaches she has received. In order to prove that, I will attempt to examine how themes which have traditionally concerned many Japanese authors such as nostalgia, family relationships and death are explored in her work by drawing material from three of her novels, Kitchen (1988), Goodbye Tsugumi (1989) and N.P. (1990). Considering those themes in the context of Yoshimoto's works will prove beneficial in establishing a connection between her writing and the general Japanese literary tradition. When Yoshimoto's first novel, Kitchen, was published in 1988, no one could predict the extent her fame would reach. Some critics have described it as the "Banana phenomenon" (Fraser 253; Sanchez 64; Sherif 280), while Treat claims that her own life resembles the "girly" stories of shōjo manga1 she drew her inspiration from, since she appears to be the first 1 For a definition of and more information on shōjo manga and culture see Sanchez 65 and Hinton 239....