bob@cadovax.UUCP (Bob "Kat" Kaplan) (03/30/85)
Names are listed in the "American" (family name second) order rather than
the "Japanese."
Kobo Abe - Known primarilary in the United States for the movie "Woman in
the Dunes" adapted from his novel of the same name, Kobo Abe is a novelist
turned playwright. His six or seven novels deal with alienation and obsession,
anonymity and facelessness, with the same sort of futility and absurdity that
Kafka or Beckett are known for. Aside from the fact that his characters have
Japanese names and live in Japanese cities, there is nothing "Japanese" about
his stories--they address a more profound condition that cuts across all
cultural boundaries.
Yukio Mishima (Kimitake Hiraoka) - Probably one of Japan's most celebrated
and notorious writers, Mishima's prolific output ranged from the bright and
optimistic to the disturbing and depressing. In my opinion, one of the most
powerful is "Runaway Horses," the second novel in his "Sea of Fertility"
tetralogy. The story is probably as autobiographical as possible while still
being fiction. It has been interpreted as a literary rehearsal of Mishima's
own death by ritual suicide.
Kenzaburo Oe - Deeply emotional and yet unsentimental, much of Oe's work
("A Personal Matter," "The Silent Cry," and several short stories) have
as a central character a child born with severe brain damage. (Oe's first
child has severe brain damage.) The stories I've read are disturbing
and upsetting, yet always hold some promise of something better.
In the interest of keeping this posting short, I've left out a lot of little
known writers (in the USA) whom I consider worth reading as well as undisputed
masters such as Kawabata, Akutagawa, etc. I should point out that I don't
speak Japanese, but have relied entirely on a large body of Japanese literature
that has been translated into English.
--
Bob Kaplan
"Our love burns like fire, then turns to ashes."