Japanese and Western Literature. Armando Martins Janeira

WRITERS OF THE YOUNGER GENERATION

      New Social Conditions and Intellectual Trends in Japan. The Modern Poets. Mitsuhiro Sawamura. Ryuichi Tamura. Kio Kuroda. Minoru Yoshioka. Hiroshi Sekine. Ryusei Hasegawa. Taro Yamamoto. Koichi Ijima. Shuntaro Tanikawa. Hiroshi Iwata. The Modern Novelists. Shusaku Endo. Kobo Abe. Yukio Mishima. Yasuko Harada. Shintaro Ishihara. Kenzaburo Oe.

      XI. THE UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF MODERN JAPANESE DRAMA

      The Poverty of Modern Scenic Art and Drama. Modern Author-Playwrights. Junichiro Tanizaki. Yuzo Yamamoto. Kan Kikuchi. Hyakuzo Kurata. Jiro Osaragi. Chikao Tanaka. Sumie Tanaka. Tsuneari Fukuda. Junji Kinoshita. Shusaku Endo. Kobo Abe. Yukio Mishima. Attempts to Modernize Noh. The Avant-garde: Modern Abstract Theatre and the Abstract Nature of Noh. (The Theatre of the Absurd: Shuji Terayama, Hiroshi Iwata, Isamu Kurita.) The Musical Review and the Cinema.

      PART TWO. ON THE NATURE OF JAPANESE CULTURE

      XII. THE EPIC AND THE TRAGIC

      Epic and Tragic Vision. The Epic and the Tragic in Eastern and Western Thought. The Epic Poem and Tragedy as Expressions of Action. The Epic and the Tragic in the Light of Buddhist and Christian Thought.

      XIII. THE EPIC CONCEPT OF LIFE

      Eastern and Western Heroic Myths. Japanese Epic Heritage. Epic Ideals. Lack of Epic Exaltation. The Modern Paths of the Epic. Epic Values in the Modern Novel and Drama. Future Horizons for the Epic.

      XIV. THE TRAGIC SENSE OF LIFE

      The Nature of Tragedy. The Tragic Vision and Modern Man. The Tragic and the Comic. The Tragic Conflict in Eastern and Western Thought. Characteristic Japanese Elements of the Tragic: Compassion and Evanescence. Aestheticism and Dehumanization. A Special Aesthetic Vocabulary. Aestheticism in Japanese Life: the Floral Art and the Art of Tea. Restraint or human Emotions and Particular Aspects of Humour. Lack of Comedy. Japanese and Western Humanism. The Concept of Life and Death.

      XV. CHARACTERISTICS AND TRENDS OF JAPANESE CULTURE

      Philosophical Thought. Shintoist Thought. Buddhist Thought. Fusion of Shintoism and Buddhism. Shintoism, Taoism, Confucianism. Man Dissolved in the Universe. Absence of Metaphysical Anxiety: a Passive Pantheism. (Lack of Tension between Good and Evil.) Sin and the Healthy Splendour of the Flesh. A Complex Simplicity. The Traditional Common Denominators in the Modern Arts. Insularity and Imagination. A Christianity Tinged with Heresy. Asia Abandoned—A Future in Europe or America?

      XVI. ORIGINALITY OF JAPANESE CULTURE

      Chinese Influence and Japanese Cultural Individuality. Originality of Japanese Art. Genuine Japanese Creation. The Sense of Inferiority towards the West as a Challenging Force. Japanese Wisdom and Western Thought. Harmony in Creation.

      PART THREE. CONFRONTATIONS

      XVII. JAPANESE CLASSIC DRAMA AND EUROPEAN MEDIAEVAL DRAMA

      Japanese Classic Drama. European Mediaeval Drama. Parallels. Noh and Morality Plays. Common Points. The Problem of Reality and Unreality. Time, Place, and Action. Satire in the European Mediaeval Farce and in Kyogen. Man's Fate in European Mediaeval Drama. Man's Fate in Noh. Western Mediaeval Theatre, Modern Theatre, and Anti-Theatre. Noh and Metatheatre. Theatre and Poetry.

      PART FOUR. HUMAN EXPERIENCE

      XVIII. TWO WESTERN WRITERS WHO LIVED WITHIN EASTERN CIVILIZATION

      Lafcadio Hearn. Wenceslau de Moraes.

       Notes

       Selective Bibliography of Japanese Literature in Translation

       Index

      

PREFACE

      This is a book of ideas that span Eastern and Western cultures. Literature is a fundamental discipline for the knowledge of man, one that treads the deeper and vaster fields of humanism. It is in literature that we can find a full outlook of man, the life and ideas of a generation, the ideals and values of a society or of a civilization. Here, too, we can discover the true image of a country, understand its life, its social atmosphere, the functioning of its institutions. I have looked to Japanese literature with the aim of discovering the fundamental ideas which link Japan as a great country of the East to the culture of the West.

      If it is subject to contradiction to make comparisons between certain writers and certain works, much more controversial will it be to compare the cultural nature of two civilizations in their essential manifestations. Yet we are forced to make such a comparison to answer the question–what is the Japanese contribution to world literature? When we attempt a comparison of cultural values, the controversy begins with the question of whether there exists an objective scientific approach for the estimate of cultural values at all.

      My main purpose is not to make comparisons, but to bring out the main lines which draw together Japanese and Western literary creations: to discover the fundamental ideas of two civilizations in the field of literature. Through this approach one can bring out new aspects of works, new dimensions of literary genres, and deeper understanding of the horizons a writer can pursue in his exploration of man. Only through the study of what between East and West is different and similar will we be able to bridge the chasm that separates them. For this reason, to know the differences is as important as to find the similarities.

      Japanese literature offers one of the most impressive examples of culture change, both because it was closed to Western influences until the end of the last century and because of the remarkable results brought about by the combination of tradition and Western novelty after that time. In the Orient Japan is the country that has reacted most constructively to Western culture and its tremendous challenge.

      When we read any book on general literature, or on the theory of literature, very seldom do we find a reference to the literature of Japan. Studies of a general nature about the modern novel or about poetry are written as if Japanese literature did not exist. The same cannot be said of the Japanese arts-the great artistic works produced by Japan in more than one thousand years are acknowledged in any valuable book on the general history of art. This difference is, in my mind, due to the fact that the knowledge of Japanese literature has been kept closely within the domain of Japanese specialists, philologists, or the small number of experts who can penetrate the intricate secrets of one of the most difficult languages. Few people in the West are aware that Japan has made valuable contributions to world literature.

      Western studies on Japanese literature have produced thorough, sometimes illuminating studies on the mediaeval epic ballads, on court poetry, and particularly on Noh. Yet there is not a serious comprehensive history of Japanese literature in English, with the exception of that written by Aston seventy years ago. This is too old and has all the noble defects of a pioneer work. Other studies which came afterwards are brief and descriptive accounts of major works, with no room to deal with literary currents or debate wider problems.

      As to the translation of Japanese literary works, we have, at one extreme, the translations of Arthur Waley, more preoccupied with beauty than with strict literal fidelity, and which