Лекция курсы lecture 1 The Problems of the Lecture

Edo Period
1603-1868
Around this time the function of literature as a means of social intercourse broadened. Composin renga (successive linked verses by several people forming a long poem) became a fovorite pastime, and this gave birth o haikai (a sort of jocular renga) in the sixteenth century. It was the renowned seventeenth century poet Matsuo Basho who perfected a new condensed poetic from of 17 syllables (5-7-5) known as haiki, an embodiment of elegant simplicity and traquility.
In the Genroku era (1688-1704) city-drewlling and merchants became the main supporters of literature, and professional artists began to appear. Two giants emerged in the field of prose: Ihara Saikaku, who realistically portrayed the life of Osaka merchants, and Chimatsu Monzaemon, who wrote joruri, a form of storytelling involving chanted lines, and kabuki plays. These writers brought about a great flowering of literature. Later Yosa Buson composed superb haiku depicting nature, while fiction writer Ueda Akinari produced a collection of gothic stories called Ugetsu monogatari (Tales of Moonlight and Rain) [1776].


Meiji Period to present

In the Meiji era (1868-1912) unification of the written and spoken language was advocated, and Futabatei Shimei’s Ukigumo (Driffing Clouds) [1887] won acclaim as a new form of novel. In poetry circles the influence of translated foreign poems led to a “new style” poetry movement and the score of literary forms continued to widen. Novelists Mori Ogai and Natsume Soseki studied in Germany and Britain respectively, and their works reflect the influence of the literature of those countries. Soseki nurtured many talented literary figures. One of them, Akutagawa Ryunosuke, wrote many superb novelettes based on his detailed knowledge of the Japanese classics. His suicide in 1927 was seen as a symbol of the agony Japan was experiencing in the process of rapid modernization, a major theme of modern Japenese literature.

Naturalism as advocated by Emile Zola dominated Japa’s literary world for the first decade of the twentieth century. This school of literature, as represented by Shimazaki Toson, is noted for the “I novel,” a style of novel typical of Japan. A number of pre-World War II literary currents, such as proletarian literature and neo-sensualism, petered out during the war but later regained strenght, generating a diverse range of words.
In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and Oe Kenzaburo won it in 1994. They and other contemporary writers, such as Tanizaki Jun’ichiro, Mishima Yukio, Abe Kobo, and Inoue Yasushi, have been translated into other languages. In the last few works by the remarkably active postwar-generation writers Murakami Ryu (who won the Akutagawa Prize), Murakami Haruki, Yoshimoto Banana, and others have also been translated into many languages and have gained tremendous popularity.
(note: all the Japanese names here follow the Japanese practice of placeing the surname first)


Reference: Re Research Institute for Publication, Shuppan shihyo nenpo (Annual Publishing Index), 1996