Routledge Research on Asian Literature – serie

This book takes the unique approach of combining cognitive approaches with more established close-reading methods in analysing a selection of Japanese novels and a film.They are by four well-known male authors and a director (Natsume Sôseki, Shiga Naoya, Ôe Kenzaburô, Ibuse Masuji and Imamura Shôhei) and five female authors (Kirino Natsuo, Kawakami Mieko, Murata Sayaka, Tsushima Yûko, and Ishimure Michiko) from the early twentieth century up to the early millennium. It approaches the different artistic strategies that oscillate between emotional immersion and critical reflection. Inspired by new developments in cognitive theory and neuroscience, the book seeks to put a spotlight on the aspects of modern Japanese novels that were not fully appreciated earlier; the eclectic and fluid nature of the novel as a form, and the vital roles played by affects and emotions often complicated under the impact of trauma.Rejuvenating previously established cultural theories through a cognitive and emotional lens (narratology, genre theory, historicism, cultural study, gender theory, and ecocriticism), this book will appeal to students and scholars of modern literature and Japanese literature.

This book takes the unique approach of combining cognitive approaches with more established close-reading methods in analysing a selection of Japanese novels and a film.They are by four well-known male authors and a director (Natsume Sôseki, Shiga Naoya, Ôe Kenzaburô, Ibuse Masuji and Imamura Shôhei) and five female authors (Kirino Natsuo, Kawakami Mieko, Murata Sayaka, Tsushima Yûko, and Ishimure Michiko) from the early twentieth century up to the early millennium. It approaches the different artistic strategies that oscillate between emotional immersion and critical reflection. Inspired by new developments in cognitive theory and neuroscience, the book seeks to put a spotlight on the aspects of modern Japanese novels that were not fully appreciated earlier; the eclectic and fluid nature of the novel as a form, and the vital roles played by affects and emotions often complicated under the impact of trauma.Rejuvenating previously established cultural theories through a cognitive and emotional lens (narratology, genre theory, historicism, cultural study, gender theory, and ecocriticism), this book will appeal to students and scholars of modern literature and Japanese literature.

Bao Ninh's Contribution to Vietnamese and World Literature analyzes and presents the works of Bao Ninh, the most well-known writer in modern Vietnamese literature. His works are renowned both in Vietnam and worldwide and his novel The Sorrow of War, which has been translated into more than 15 languages, is considered to be one of the classic works of war literature.This book by two award-winning scholars, one in war literature and the other in war history, presents for the first time an overall assessment of Bao Ninh’s works, notably of his celebrated novel and his short stories. It outlines his life, setting it in the context of war-torn Vietnam whence he was a teenage soldier at the age of 17 in the North Vietnamese People's Army (NVPA); highlights the main themes of the corpus of his writings, inter alia of suffering and trauma of war impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of veterans, of the futility of war; discusses his approach to writing; compares his writings with others in war literature; and examines and assesses his especial place in world literature. This pioneering monograph of the scholarly evaluation of Bao Ninh himself and his works further engages in the discourse of his contribution to modern Vietnamese literature and world literature. Encouraging a better understanding of wars and conflicts, the book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of modern Asian history, in particular the Vietnam War, Southeast Asian Studies, and Vietnamese and World literature.

Bao Ninh's Contribution to Vietnamese and World Literature analyzes and presents the works of Bao Ninh, the most well-known writer in modern Vietnamese literature. His works are renowned both in Vietnam and worldwide and his novel The Sorrow of War, which has been translated into more than 15 languages, is considered to be one of the classic works of war literature.This book by two award-winning scholars, one in war literature and the other in war history, presents for the first time an overall assessment of Bao Ninh’s works, notably of his celebrated novel and his short stories. It outlines his life, setting it in the context of war-torn Vietnam whence he was a teenage soldier at the age of 17 in the North Vietnamese People's Army (NVPA); highlights the main themes of the corpus of his writings, inter alia of suffering and trauma of war impacts of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of veterans, of the futility of war; discusses his approach to writing; compares his writings with others in war literature; and examines and assesses his especial place in world literature. This pioneering monograph of the scholarly evaluation of Bao Ninh himself and his works further engages in the discourse of his contribution to modern Vietnamese literature and world literature. Encouraging a better understanding of wars and conflicts, the book will be of interest to researchers and students in the fields of modern Asian history, in particular the Vietnam War, Southeast Asian Studies, and Vietnamese and World literature.

This book illuminates individual and collective imaginings of postcolonial Bangladesh. It explores the emergence of Bangladesh as a nation from a variety of perspectives.The author studies the impact of Muslim nationalism on the subaltern life-worlds of East Bengal during the Partition, religious minorities and their insecurity in East Pakistan, East Pakistan’s political insurgencies, the victims of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, the Indian stake in the 1971 War, and the cosmopolitan interpretations of the war. The literary and cultural texts that inform this project include contemporary Bengali novels, South Asian Anglophone literature, as well as selected visual media and digital sources. The project’s reading of these texts in conjunction with politics and history has interdisciplinary relevance.This book will be of interest to researchers in South Asian Literature, South Asian History and Culture, World Literatures in English as well as Area Studies, Security Studies, and Political Theory.

This book delves into the evolving Southern discourse in Sinophone literature and explores its significance in the global context. Examining the Southern discourse not just within mainland China but also in the geographically and culturally southern regions, including Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and Australia, this book analyzes various critical themes, including transnational migration, racial dynamics and stereotypes, gender politics, indigenous awareness, cultural hybridity, and global connections between the South and North. Challenging existing frameworks and providing innovative perspectives on Sinophone literature’s Southern discourse, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Chinese literature, Asian literature, and comparative literature.

Providing the reader with a systematic study of visual subjectivity in comparative thought and literature, this book analyses the role that vision and visuality, especially interpersonal visuality, play in the constitution of subject and subjectivity in Chinese and American traditions.Examining the formation of visual subjectivity in the philosophical works by major Chinese and Western thinkers, this book provides a comparative study of four masterworks of Chinese and American fiction, focusing on The Plum in the Golden Vase, The Story of the Stone, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter. It demonstrates that there are both psychologically universal and culturally specific factors and features in the visual constitution and representation of self, identity, subject, and subjectivity.Offering fresh insights for cross-cultural studies of intellectual thought, literature, ideology, and culture through the visual lens, this book will appeal to students and scholars engaged in comparative studies of Chinese and American thought, literature, and narrative theory.

This book explores the existence of a Christian discursive space in Japanese literature, extending from the Meiji (1868–1912) and Taishō (1912–1926) eras to the postwar period. It examines a crucial question: what is the correlation between Christianity and Japanese literature, and how did these two realms continue to interface following the significant Christian experience of the Meiji and Taishō years?Highlighting a major shift across the World War II divide, from narratives that emphasized humanity's inability to change its fate and avoid spiritual damnation to narratives that contemplated the possibilities of salvation, this study argues that such transformations, and the subsequent developments at the intersection of art and faith, were largely a dialectical response to earlier paradigms of despair, nihilism, and ineluctability. Examining the works of eight major authors from these intervening years, this volume explores the important mutual connections that fuelled their fiction and deliberations, challenging conventional understandings and periodization of Christianity's influence on twentieth-century Japanese literature.This work will be a valuable resource for students and scholars interested in literary criticism, Japanese literature, religion, and Christianity.

This book analyzes avant-garde contemporary Japanese poetry published in the monthly poetry journal Gendai shi techō (Contemporary Poetry Handbook).Featuring analyses and English translations of original poetry and poetics by leading younger Japanese poets, as well as older, veteran poets whose work appears frequently in the journal, the book explores the impact of social media and Internet on the world of poetry as well as issues and concerns of 21st-century Japanese poets such as eco-criticism, love and relationships.As the first scholarly monograph to be focused on the complicated and fascinating realm of 21st-century Japanese poetry, this book will appeal to students and scholars of Japanese poetry and literature, as well as poetry in translation.