Japanische Literatur

This edited collection is composed of four uniquely authored chapters, each of which examines collective identity in early modern East Asia through biography and historical accounts. In addition, an introductory chapter lays out the overall principles and concerns of biography in Early Modern East Asia.The book covers five civilizations (China, Japan, Ry¿ky¿ Kingdom, and Vietnam) while also touching on relations among these civilizations. This volume considers how biographies or life stories can help us better understand these civilizations. Each contributor explores shared concerns about biography, writing, group and individual identity, and the implications of these on the overall genre of biography in East Asia in the early modern period.

This volume offers the first comprehensive analysis of Yoko Tawada's German-language works and selected translations from Japanese, approached through the perspective of studies on difference. Drawing on interdisciplinary methodologies, including poststructuralism and posthumanism, it explores the dynamics of alterity - nomadic narratives, water, transformation, transgression and migration - as key motifs in Tawada's novels, essays, poetry, and plays. The dynamics of alterity permeate binary entanglements of the external and internal worlds, they do not reproduce the clash of thesis and antithesis or affirm negativity. They offer a way to step outside the limitations of dichotomous logic.

Im Alter von 39 Jahren reiste der irisch-griechische Schriftsteller Lafcadio Hearn von New York aus nach Japan - und verließ es nie wieder. In zahlreichen Geschichten, Reportagen und Essays schildert Hearn in meisterhafter Prosa seine Liebe für die beeindruckende Schönheit der japanischen Natur und macht den westlichen Leser mit der faszinierenden Kultur des Landes vertraut - um 1900 eine Sensation. Der vorliegende Band versammelt Hearns berühmteste Texte, begleitet von einem Vorwort seines Bewunderers Stefan Zweig.Enthält Texte aus Hearns fünfbändiger Japan-Reihe, u. a. 'Mein erster Tag in Japan', 'Seelen', 'Shinju', 'Geister und Kobolde', 'Das japanische Lächeln', 'An der japanischen See', 'Auf einer Eisenbahnstation', 'Die Macht des Karma' u. v. m.- 'Der Ire, der Japan erfand' Die Zeit- Japan-Reportagen von Lafcadio Hearn, zusammengestellt und mit einem Vorwort von Stefan Zweig- 'Der einzige Europäer, der dieses Land ganz gekannt und ganz geliebt hat.' Hugo von Hofmannsthal über Lafcadio Hearn- 'Kein Land des Fernen Ostens hat die Fantasie der westlichen Welt so sehr erregt wie Japan.' Deutschlandfunk

Die Aufsätze in diesem Band widmen sich den Themen Kanon und Klassik in Deutschland und Japan: Welche Anstrengungen unternahm Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche zur Kanonisierung der Schriften ihres berühmten Bruders? Welchen Einfluss hatte der deutsche Klassikbegriff auf die japanische Literaturwissenschaft? Wie versuchte Thomas Mann mit ¿Der Tod in Venedig¿ klassisch zu werden? Warum veröffentlichte 1899 ein junger Japaner eine Geschichte der japanischen Literatur auf Deutsch?

Was können literarische und künstlerische Werke über ihre Zeit erzählen? Und wie können sie diese diskursiv mitgestalten? Carolin Fleischer-Heininger untersucht unter Bezugnahme auf kultur- und literaturwissenschaftliche Globalisierungstheorien und vor dem Hintergrund prägender literarischer, kultureller, gesellschaftlicher und (ideen-)geschichtlicher Kontexte die Gestaltung eines Nachkriegsjapan im literarischen, dramatischen und filmischen Werk von Terayama Shuji (1935-1983).Terayama war einer der einflussreichsten, innovativsten, vielseitigsten und international sichtbarsten, aber auch umstrittensten Vertreter der japanischen (Gegen-)Kultur jener Zeit. Dabei nimmt Fleischer-Heininger das Phänomen 'Terayama' in seiner Komplexität und Vielseitigkeit in den Blick: sie betrachtet die für Terayamas (Gegenwelt-)Entwürfe gleichermaßen leitenden räumlichen Bezugsrahmen - Aomori, Japan und Welt - und analysiert Terayamas Werke hinsichtlich formaler und stilistischer Kennzeichen für Verflechtungen sowie bezüglich ihrer Aushandlung der im nachkriegszeitlichen Japan vorherrschenden Narrative einer fundierenden Geschichtsschreibung und einer homogenen kulturell-nationalen Identität Japans. Die Untersuchung soll dabei dem widersprüchlichen wie zugleich interpretatorisch offenen Werk Terayamas gerecht werden. Des Weiteren arbeitet sie durch kontrastierende Bezüge zu Zeitgenoss:innen Terayamas Positionierung in zeitaktuellen Diskursen heraus. Zudem enthält die Studie eine kommentierte Übersetzung des Bühnenstücks "Sen'ichiya monogatari: Shinjuku-ban" (1968).

Dieser Sammelband mit dem Titel "Schwarze Löcher im Gewebe der Sprachen": Kulturelles Übersetzen in der japanischen Literatur erkennt an, dass Übersetzungen niemals nur Übersetzungen von Wörtern sind, sondern auch kulturelle Bezugshorizonte umfassen. Als Beitrag zur Bildung, Abgrenzung und Konsolidierung kultureller und sozialer Identitäten bietet das Kulturelle Übersetzen verschiedene thematische, theoretische und methodische Ansätze für die literatur- und textimmanente Forschung und regt zur Reflexion über disziplinäre Grenzen an.

Neuübersetzung von Sabrina WägerleIm Familienkreis mimt ¿ba Y¿z¿ den Clown, doch es sind die Possen eines Verzweifelten, der seine schweren inneren Kämpfe hinter Sarkasmus verbirgt. Alle wahren Nöte und Gedanken kann er nur seinen Notizheften anvertrauen. In radikaler Offenheit erzählt dieser Roman-Klassiker von einer so gescheiten wie tief beschädigten jungen Seele auf der glücklosen Suche nach Orientierung und Halt. In Japan ist das Buch millionenfach verbreitet, dort entdeckt jede Lesergeneration aufs Neue die Aktualität dieser zeitlosen Geschichte.- Der Kultklassiker ist ein Millionenseller und eines der meistverkauften Bücher in Japan- Dazais Meisterwerk ist ein Muss für Japan-Fans und für alle, die Kafka, Murakami oder Dostojewski lesen- 'Dazais letzter großer Roman ¿Gezeichnet¿ machte ihn endgültig zur Kultfigur der existentialistischen Jugend.' Deutschlandfunk- 'Dazais Verzweiflung hat etwas seltsam Anschmiegsames an sich. Die Offenheit seiner Figuren gegenüber ihrer Grausamkeit und ihrem Egoismus ... macht sie paradoxerweise verletzlich.' The New York Times

2026 Eisner Award Nominee--Best Academic/Scholarly WorkA comprehensive English-language history of a beloved medium, Manga's First Century tells the story of the artists and fans who built a cultural juggernaut. Manga is the world's most popular style of comics. How did manga and anime--"moving manga"--become ubiquitous? Manga's First Century delves into the history and finds surprising answers. In fact, manga has always been a global phenomenon. Countering essentialist myths of manga's emergence from the deepest wells of Japanese art, author Andrea Horbinski shows it was born in the early 1900s, a hybrid form that crossed single-panel satirical cartoons popular in Europe and America with the Edo period's artistic legacy. As a medium, manga initially focused on political commentary, expanding to include social satire, children's comics, and proletarian art in the 1920s and 1930s. Manga's evolution into a medium embracing complex, long-form storytelling was likewise driven by creators and fans pushing publishers to accept new, radical expansions in manga's artistic and narrative practices. In the 1970s, innovative creators and fans empowered a new breed of fan-generated comics (dōjinshi) and established robust audiences of adult, female, and queer manga readers, while nurturing generations of amateur and professional creators who continue to enrich and renew manga today.

Matsuo Bash¿s poetisches Reisetagebuch Oku no Hosomichi gehört zu den bekanntesten Werken der vormodernen Literatur Japans. Es gibt zahlreiche Übersetzungen in viele Sprachen, und hierzulande ist es in Géza S. Dombradys annotierter Übertragung Bash¿ - Auf schmalen Pfaden durchs Hinterland (1985, vierte Auflage 2011) bekannt. Das spirituell und philosophisch inspirierte Reisetagebuch, dessen Haiku zu Bash¿s berühmtesten zählen, beruht auf einer fünfmonatigen Reise durch den Norden der japanischen Hauptinsel, die Bash¿ und ein gewisser Kasai Sora im Jahr 1689 unternahmen. Sora hielt die einzelnen Stationen im Tagebuch fest, aber zu seinen Aufzeichnungen gehören noch andere Teile, die weiterführend für das Verstehen der tatsächlichen Reise wie auch des literarischen Werks sind. Robert F. Wittkamp stellt in seiner Untersuchung die Aufzeichnungen von Kasai Sora vor und unternimmt eine sich darüber eröffnende Tiefenlesung des Oku no Hosomichi . Der Vergleich von Aufzeichnung und literarischem Werk verdeutlicht nicht wenige Fiktionalisierungs- und Inszenierungsstrategien. Soras Aufzeichnungen zeigen weiterhin, dass es auf verschiedenen Stationen der Reise zu Kettendichtungen mit lokalen Dichtern kam, die Eingang in mehrere Sammlungen fanden. Die Reise bildete somit die Grundlage für eine ganze Reihe von Haiku, Kettendichtungen und kurzen Prosastücken von hohem literarischen Wert, von denen jedoch nur die erst einige Jahre später zum Oku no Hosomichi zusammengestellte Erzählung Bekanntheit erlangte.

Die Sprachgeschichtsforschung hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten wichtige neue Impulse aus zwei linguistischen Teildisziplinen erhalten: der Soziolinguistik und der Pragmatik. Die Festschrift für Hiroyuki Takada versammelt 14 Beiträge von Forscherinnen und Forschern aus Japan, Deutschland, der Schweiz und Österreich, die Aspekte der Sprachgeschichten bzw. des Sprachwandels des Deutschen, des Englischen und des Japanischen untersuchen. Den genannten Impulsen folgend, liegt der Fokus dabei auf Forschungsansätzen der Historischen Soziolinguistik und der Historischen Pragmatik - mit Schwerpunkten auf der Text-und-Diskurs-Forschung und der Höflichkeitsforschung - sowie der Forschung zum Verhältnis von Sprache und Politik, mit besonderem Bezug zur Sprache der NS-Zeit.

"Art dies the moment it acquires authority." So said Japan's quintessential rebel writer Osamu Dazai, who, disgusted with the hypocrisy of every kind of establishment, from the nation's obsolete aristocracy to its posturing, warmongering generals, went his own way, even when that meant his death-and the death of others. Faced with pressure to conform, he declared his individuality to the world-in all its self-involved, self-conscious and self-hating glory. "Art", he wrote, "is 'I'."In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai's life mirrored his art and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing. And that has made him a hero to generations of readers who see laid bare, in his works, the painful, impossible contradictions inherent in the universal commandment of social life-fit in and do as you are told-as well as the possibility, however desperate, of defiance. Long out of print, these stories will be a revelation to the legions of new fans of No Longer Human, The Setting Sun and The Flowers of Buffoonery. 

The Japanese philosopher Miki Kiyoshi opens doors to all those interested in rethinking the problem of imagination, myth, and technology.<BR><BR>Miki Kiyoshi is one of the central figures in the Kyoto School, often spoken of as the heir of Kitaro Nishida. Born in Japan in 1897, he died in prison shortly after the end of World War II in 1945 at the age of 48.<BR><BR>Miki's The Logic of Imagination first appeared in the journal Thought in 1937 under the themes of "Myth," "Institution," and "Technology". The next part, "Experience," was serialized in the same journal and Miki continued to work on the final part, but was never completed it due to his arrest.<BR><BR>This translation makes this seminal work available in English for the first time. Featuring an introduction and accompanied throughout by contextual notes, it includes essential information about Miki's life and work. Miki's philosophy of the imagination anticipated later theories found first in Hannah Arendt, and then in Paul Ricoeur and most recently in Charles Taylor. The connection Miki makes of the imagination with technology anticipates ideas of the technological imagination in Don Ihde and Bernard Stiegler. <BR><BR>Miki's thinking about the imagination illuminates our understanding of technology and how we behave in the world. This accessible, critical edition of his work does justice to one of the most unfairly underrated authors of Japanese philosophy.

Anhand einer Diskursanalyse repräsentativer Debatten zwischen 1920 und 1970 unter Einbezugnahme von Bourdieus Theorie des literarischen Feldes wird die Entwicklung, die Rolle und die Selbstwahrnehmung des modernen japanischen Intellektuellen in der Zwischen- und Nachkriegszeit des 20. Jahrhunderts gezeichnet und ein Profil des Schriftstellers als Intellektueller definiert.

Words have power. Yet that power must be rooted in truth and justice. Words must never stand apart from those principles.<BR><BR>'You end this collection...vowing to never let life, or writing, get so complicated again' Guardian<BR><BR>Readers who have long wondered where the mysterious novelist gets his ideas and what inspires his beautifully surreal worlds will be fascinated by this highly personal look at the craft of writing.<BR><BR>In this engaging book, the internationally best-selling author shares with readers what he thinks about being a novelist; his own origins as a writer; and his musings on the sparks of creativity that inspire other writers, artists, and musicians.<BR><BR>'Murakami is like a magician who explains what he's doing as he performs the trick and still makes you believe he has supernatural powers' New York Times Book Review<BR><BR>'A fascinating glimpse of the peculiar writerly life' Sunday Times<BR><BR>** A TIMES, SUNDAY TIMES and NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR**

The dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945 marked the beginning of a new era: the atomic age. Nuclear power has always been an extremely sensitive matter in Japan, and this is hardly surprising given that the Japanese and, subsequently, American government censored information regarding its destructive power. So, while "evil" energy was successfully consigned to oblivion until the end of the allied occupation in 1952, "good" energy was enthusiastically encouraged by the government one short year later in the wake of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's famous Atoms for Peace-speech. Needless to say that the discursive division of the atom led to a division in society: on the one hand, those who were still suffering from the consequences of the bomb and on the other, those who were now striving for a new, comfortable middle-class life.The contributions examine the various forms of articulation of nuclear power - and the various actors involved from the early post-war period to the present day. They attempt to work out that the peaceful and the destructive power of the atom are two sides of the same coin. The triple disaster at Fukushima in 2011 made this all too clear and ultimately exposed the national myth of nuclear safety that had lulled post-war Japanese society into a false sense of security. A thorough reexamination of Japan's nuclear fallacy is needed now more than ever.

Die über Jahrtausende gewachsene Kultur Japans fesselt und beeindruckt bis heute. Sehr eng sind die historische Überlieferung und das moderne Leben des inzwischen hochtechnisierten Inselstaates miteinander verwoben. Fremdartig und bisweilen entrückt wirken die Sagen, Mythen und Märchen, die Mitford für sein 1871 erstmals erschienenes Buch 'Tales of Old Japan' zusammentrug, so etwa die berühmte Erzählung von den '47 Ronin' oder der lange Bericht über das berüchtigte Harakiri, die rituelle Selbsttötung der Samurai. Über 30 zeitgenössische japanische Illustrationen geben dem Band seinen besonderen Flair.- Neuausgabe des Standardwerks von 1871- Eine Einführung in die japanische Literatur und Kultur. Aus japanischen Quellen und mit begleitenden Anmerkungen Mitfords- Mit Augenzeugenberichte über japanische Bräuche, wie Harakiri oder Heirat, Geburt, Erziehung und BestattungAusstattung: zahlreiche sw-Illustrationen

This open access book includes forty-one chapters about foreign observers' discourses on Japan. These include a wide range of perspectives from the travelogues of curious visitors to academic theses by scholars, which offer us a broad spectrum of contents, reflecting a variety of attitudes toward Japan. The works were written during the period from the 1850s to the 1980s, a timespan during which Japan became, in stages, more open to the outside world after a long isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. From the perspective of "Japanology," one can discern three distinct periods of rising interest in the country from abroad. The first tide of such interest came shortly after the opening of Japan, when various foreign travelers, including those who could not be included in this book, came over and wrote down their impressions of the country-which was, for them, a land of mystery and mystique, which had just opened its doors to them. The second wave arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, just after the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan again generated a remarkable surge of interest as a "miracle" in Asia that had pulled off the wondrous feat of defeating a white superpower. The third wave was more recent, which took place from the late 1960s to the 1980s, a period of high economic growth when the "miracle" of Japan's remarkable economic recovery from the defeat of World War II attracted enthusiastic and curious attention from the outside world once again. It is not the intention of this book to directly highlight such historical transitions, but these forty-two brilliant mirrors (forty-one chapters, including forty-two discourses), even when looked in casually, provide us with unexpected insights and various perspectives. Sh¿ichi Saeki (1922-2016) was Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo. T¿ru Haga (1931-2020) was Professor Emeritus, International Research Center for Japanese Studies.

This open access book includes forty-one chapters about foreign observers' discourses on Japan. These include a wide range of perspectives from the travelogues of curious visitors to academic theses by scholars, which offer us a broad spectrum of contents, reflecting a variety of attitudes toward Japan. The works were written during the period from the 1850s to the 1980s, a timespan during which Japan became, in stages, more open to the outside world after a long isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. From the perspective of "Japanology," one can discern three distinct periods of rising interest in the country from abroad. The first tide of such interest came shortly after the opening of Japan, when various foreign travelers, including those who could not be included in this book, came over and wrote down their impressions of the country-which was, for them, a land of mystery and mystique, which had just opened its doors to them. The second wave arose at the beginning of the twentieth century, just after the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan again generated a remarkable surge of interest as a "miracle" in Asia that had pulled off the wondrous feat of defeating a white superpower. The third wave was more recent, which took place from the late 1960s to the 1980s, a period of high economic growth when the "miracle" of Japan's remarkable economic recovery from the defeat of World War II attracted enthusiastic and curious attention from the outside world once again. It is not the intention of this book to directly highlight such historical transitions, but these forty-two brilliant mirrors (forty-one chapters, including forty-two discourses), even when looked in casually, provide us with unexpected insights and various perspectives. Sh¿ichi Saeki (1922-2016) was Professor Emeritus, the University of Tokyo. T¿ru Haga (1931-2020) was Professor Emeritus, International Research Center for Japanese Studies.

This fresh look at artist Takashi Murakami takes on the “monstrous” themes of rampant consumerism, human fallibility, and the perils of life in the digital fast lane, in works from the past decade<BR>  <BR> One of Japan’s leading contemporary artists, Takashi Murakami (b. 1962) is known for a wide-ranging practice that encompasses not only fine art but fashion, consumer products, curation, and entertainment. Founder of the Superflat movement, Murakami makes art that is larger than life, boldly colored, and buoyant, with a Pop sensibility that draws inspiration from anime and manga.<BR>  <BR> But beyond the happy flowers and kawaii characters that have defined Murakami’s career lurk darker manifestations: the sharp-toothed, multi-eyed monsters that have increasingly become the artist’s vehicle for expressing the effects of rampant consumerism, human fallibility, and the perils of life in the digital fast lane. This book explores these themes in works from the last decade, presenting a disquieting vision of monsterized beings born in an era of unprecedented environmental, political, and social turmoil.<BR>  <BR> Conversations with Murakami and essays by Laura W. Allen, Hiroko Ikegami, and Masako Shiba deconstruct what monsters mean to the artist and reflect on new directions in Murakami’s sculpture and the genesis of his recent NFT projects. The book features lavish color illustrations, a plastic jacket, dyed edges, and four gatefolds.<BR>  <BR> Published in association with the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco<BR>  <BR>Exhibition Schedule:<BR>  <BR>Asian Art Museum of San Francisco<BR> (September 15, 2023–February 12, 2024)

The Flowers of Buffoonery opens in a seaside sanatorium where Yozo Oba-the narrator of No Longer Human at a younger age-is being kept after a failed suicide attempt. While he is convalescing, his friends and family visit him, and other patients and nurses drift in and out of his room. Against this dispiriting backdrop, everyone tries to maintain a light-hearted, even clownish atmosphere: playing cards, smoking cigarettes, vying for attention, cracking jokes and trying to make each other laugh.While No Longer Human delves into the darkest corners of human consciousness, The Flowers of Buffoonery pokes fun at these same emotions: the follies and hardships of youth, of love and of self-hatred and depression. A glimpse into the lives of a group of outsiders in pre-war Japan, The Flowers of Buffoonery is a darkly humorous and fresh addition to Osamu Dazai's masterful and intoxicating oeuvre.

Mine has been a life of much shame. I can't even guess myself what it must be to live the life of a human being.Portraying himself as a failure, the protagonist of Osamu Dazai's No Longer Human narrates a seemingly normal life even while he feels himself incapable of understanding human beings. His attempts to reconcile himself to the world around him begin in early childhood, continue through high school, where he becomes a "clown" to mask his alienation, and eventually lead to a failed suicide attempt as an adult. Without sentimentality, he records the casual cruelties of life and its fleeting moments of human connection and tenderness. Still one of the ten bestselling books in Japan, No Longer Human is an important and unforgettable modern classic: "The struggle of the individual to fit into a normalizing society remains just as relevant today as it was at the time of writing." (The Japan Times)