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A stunning and understated debut novel of seduction and infidelity about a woman who, devastated by the death of her son, takes an increasing interest in the personal affairs of her widowed daughter-in-law. Following the devastating death of her son, Mieko Toganō takes an increasing interest in the personal affairs of her widowed daughter-in-law, Yasuko. She skillfully manipulates the relationships between Yasuko and the two men who are in love with her, encouraging a dalliance that will have terrible consequences. Meanwhile, hidden in the shadows, is Mieko’s mentally-handicapped daughter, who has her own role to play in her mother’s bizarre schemes.
Published for the first time in the UK, one of Japan's greatest modern female writers In the late nineteenth century, Tomo, the faithful wife of a government official, is sent to Tokyo, where a heartbreaking task is awaiting her. From among hundreds of geishas and daughters offered up for sale by their families she must select a respectable young girl to become her husband’s new lover. Externally calm, but torn apart inside, Tomo dutifully begins the search for an official mistress. The Waiting Years was awarded Japan’s most prestigious literary award, the Noma Prize.
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Mannheim, course: The New Woman in American Short Fiction, language: English, abstract: Fumiko Enchi has worked on Onnazaka for eight years, which has been translated to English under the title of The Waiting Years. The novelist-critic Takami Jun describes it as "a rare jewel among masterpieces of modern literature". The novel reveals how the family system of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) leads to an exploitation of the women and treats various problems which the protagonist Tomo Shirakawa faces. The role of the concubines provides a profound double structure. The novel i...
Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Literature, grade: 1,7, University of Mannheim, course: The New Woman in American Short Fiction, language: English, abstract: Fumiko Enchi has worked on Onnazaka for eight years, which has been translated to English under the title of The Waiting Years. The novelist-critic Takami Jun describes it as “a rare jewel among masterpieces of modern literature”. The novel reveals how the family system of Meiji Japan (1868-1912) leads to an exploitation of the women and treats various problems which the protagonist Tomo Shirakawa faces. The role of the concubines provides a profound double structure. The nov...
A Tale of False Fortunes is a masterful translation of Enchi Fumiko's (1905-1986) modern classic, Namamiko monogatari. Written in 1965, this prize-winning work of historical fiction presents an alternative account of an imperial love affair narrated in the eleventh-century romance A Tale of Flowering Fortunes (Eiga monogatari). Both stories are set in the Heian court of the emperor Ichijo (980-1011) and tell of the ill-fated love between the emperor and his first consort, Teishi, and of the political rivalries that threaten to divide them. While the earlier work can be viewed largely as a panegyric to the all-powerful regent Fujiwara no Michinaga, Enchi's account emphasizes Teishi's nobility...
Beginning with the first writings to assimilate and rework Western literary traditions, through the flourishing of the short story genre in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of the Taisho era, to the new breed of writers produced under the constraints of literary censorship, and the current writings reflecting the pitfalls and paradoxes of modern life, this anthology offers a stimulating survey of the entire development of the Japanese short story.
Critical approaches to and reception of Vengeance is Mine -- Intertextuality -- Vengeance is Mine -- Iwao's foundational trauma -- Sins of the father -- Sins of the son -- Sins of the fathers, sins of the sons -- Conclusion -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Index
In Imperial times in Japan, women were subservient inferiors; in theory they were liberated by the democratic constitution imposed by the US after World War II; but, in real-life Japan, change is glacially slow. Here, that slow-changing reality is juxtaposed with the fast-moving aspirations of Japanese women. The author achieves this through wide-ranging interviews with Japanese women, and by using a range of contemporay Japanese literature.
This fantastically varied and exciting collection celebrates the great Japanese short story, from its modern origins in the nineteenth century to the remarkable works being written today. Short story writers already well-known to English-language readers are all included here - Tanizaki, Akutagawa, Murakami, Mishima, Kawabata - but also many surprising new finds. From Yuko Tsushima's 'Flames' to Yuten Sawanishi's 'Filling Up with Sugar', from Shin'ichi Hoshi's 'Shoulder-Top Secretary' to Banana Yoshimoto's 'Bee Honey', The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories is filled with fear, charm, beauty and comedy. Curated by Jay Rubin, who has himself freshly translated several of the stories, and introduced by Haruki Murakami, this book will be a revelation to its readers.
"Maggie understands that splatter for splatter's sake is boring. Psychopathy is boring. Coldness is boring. She's interested in feeling, and when her stories turn violent (as they frequently do), it's with a surreal emotional barbarity that distorts the entire world. You can mop up blood with any fabric. Maggie's concern is with the wound left behind, because the wound never leaves-it haunts. As a result, each of these stories leaves a wound of its own. Some weep, watching as you try (and fail) to recover. Others laugh. But never without feeling." -B.R. Yeager, author of Negative Space "And once finished, I felt like my tongue had been misplaced, guts heavy and expanded ... gums numb with a tongue that'd been put elsewhere, my mouth clean around a pipe weaving up through pitch and shadow ... and well past ready, primed for delight, waiting but knowing I had already been filled to skin; crying shit, hearing piss, fingernails seeping bile, pores dribbling blood, soles slopping off and out to meet a drain mid-floor ..." -Christopher Norris, author of Hunchback '88