"Mizumura Minae’s Novel" Shishōsetsu from left to right (1995)
"Mizumura Minae’s Novel" Shishōsetsu from left to right (1995)

Shishōsetsu or Realism?

Author(s): Matthew Königsberg
Subject(s): Cultural history, Studies of Literature, Other Language Literature, Philology
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Mizumura Minae; polylingualism; bilingualism; shishōsetsu; literary realism; postmodernist literature
Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses "Shishōsetsu from left to right" (1995), Mizumura Minae’s shishōsetsu or ‘I-novel.’ Taking a closer look at the book – which through its very title purports to belong to a specific and unique Japanese genre – the paper poses the question of whether Mizumura’s work is indeed an ‘I-novel’ and thus unique to Japan, or whether it would be more accurate to classify it as an example of realist literature. The question is approached by first “verifying” the autobiographical information given in the novel and then by comparing the time structure of the work to that of conventional shishōsetsu. It is shown that the work diverges from conventional ‘I-novels’ in the way that the narrator presents the material. In addition, the work is shown to have a theme, namely, loneliness in American society. Finally, in dealing with the polylingual text, the question is raised as to what extent the use of English is mimetic, or if it is possibly – along with photos and other ‘non-mimetic’ devices in the novel – at times more akin to techniques of postmodernist literature.

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