Anastasia S. Borisova, PhD in Philology, Senior Lecturer at the Department of Japanese Philology, Institute of Asian and African Studies of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Mokhovaya Street, 11/1, 125009, Moscow, Russia.
Introspective writing with little plot structuring and a view on life through the prism of everyday experience and memories are the main features of the works of the “introverted generation” Japanese authors who debuted in the period from the end of the 1960s to the beginning of the 1970s, and they continued the tradition of the “I-novel” genre of previous decades. Short stories The Man Who Came Home by Goto Meisei and Peaches by Abe Akira are both written as a long chain of associations and reminiscences based on images from the authors’ past. Inner monologues of protagonists in these stories gradually reveal more and more details and reflections similar to the fragmented writing of traditional zuihitsu essays and autobiographical contemplation turns into narrativization of generational stereotypes and conflicts. The lack of a consistent plot is typical for the literary group, and in both stories the intended haziness of memories emphasizes the subjective character of human memory and gives the reader an opportunity to fill in the blank spots by their own experience.
“Introverted generation”; shishosetsu; Japanese literature; Goto Meisei; Abe Akira.
10.01.2024
08.02.2024
Borisova, A.S. “Characteristics of Narrativization of Personal and Generational Experience in The Man Who Came Home (1971) by Goto Meisei and Peaches (1972) by Abe Akira”. Literaturovedcheskii zhurnal, no. 2(64), 2024, pp. 157–170.
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