THE MODERNIZATION OF JAPANESE LITERATURE A BRIEF COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE
THE MODERNIZATION OF JAPANESE LITERATURE A BRIEF COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Summary/Abstract: The Modernization of Japanese Literature. A Brief Comparative Perspective. This paper views the modernization process of Japanese literature from a comparative perspective. In the first section, a number of impulses from comparative literature are introduced in order to put the process of literary modernization in Japan into perspective. Second of all, the traditional view of Japan's road to the modern novel (Tsubouchi Shōyō's Shōsetsu shinzui = The Essence of the Novel leading to Futabatei Shime's Ukigumo = The Drifting Cloud) is briefly sketched, only to be called into question on a number of counts: To begin with, the goal of gembun itchi ("the unity of the spoken and written language") which was supposedly achieved by Futabatei turns out to be neither exhaustively defined (reduced, as it usually is, to the question of auxiliary verbs in Japanese) nor in itself sufficient (since the idea of literary modernization involved more than a simple shift in tense). Finally, several newer ideas on Japan's possible route to modern literature are discussed, including the role of poetological works and of Japan's first literary journal, Garakuta bunko (= Rubbish Literature).

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