7/27/2019 Modern Japanese Fiction and Its Traditions: An Introduction.

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J . T H O M A S R I M E RModern Japanese Fiction and ItsTraditions: An Introduction.Pr ince ton : P r ince ton U n ive r s i tyPress , 1978 . Pp . 313 .

Unl ike mos t modern l i t e ra ture of theWe s t , mode r n J a pa ne s e l i t e r a t u r e w a s no tthe resu l t o f a gradua l process of deve lop-ment ; wi th the opening of the count ry toWestern cul ture and c ivi l iza t ion and wi ththe beginning of the Mei j i res torat ion(1868), J ap an ese w r i t e rs exper ien ced acul ture shock . The impac t of Wes te rnl i t e ra ture , a r t , and phi losophy broughtabout a sudden and comple te change inWeltanschauung, s ty le , and choice ofsubjec tor so i t s eemed. The impor tanceo f E u r ope a n a nd A me r i c a n a u t ho r s a ndt he i r w or ks f o r t he de ve l opm e n t o f mo de r nJapanese fict ion (as well as for that ofpoe try an d the the ater) i s , of cou rse ,undisputed. But for too long, cr i t ics haves t ressed the e lement of " inf luence" andneglec ted the fac t tha t modern Japanesefiction is also firmly roo ted in Jap an es et rad i t ion .

For many years now, good t rans la t ions ofJapanese f ic t ion have been avai lable to theWestern reader; the success of those t rans-l a t ions is du e pe rh ap s mor e to the "m od-ern" qual i ty of those novels and s tor ieswhich every reader can apprec ia te , than tothei r "exot ic" qual i ty which how ever en -t rancing i t may beremains essent ia l lybe yond t he We s t e r n r e a de r ' s c om pr e he n -s ion . No comple te unders tanding i s poss i -ble if the reader is not aware of the typicallyJap an ese e leme nts in th is f ic tion. J . T ho m asRimer ' s book has , the re fore , an impor tan trole to play. His study is not s imply ani n t r oduc t i on t o m od e r n J a pa n e s e p r os el i tera ture for the nonspecia l is t ; his mainaim is " to indicate cer ta in s t ru ctura l p r inci -p les impor tan t in the t rad i t ion of J apanesena rra tiv e fiction" ( p. vii).

Rimer d i scusses works by Junich i roT a n i z a k i (A Portrait ofShunkin, The Bridge ofDreams), S s e k i N a t s ume (Kusamakura),A ki na r i U e da (Tales of Moo nlight and Rain),Kaft t Nagai (The River Sumida), O ga i M or i(Sansha Sie Steward), Yasunar i Kawaba ta(Snow Country), O s a mu D a z a i (The SettingSun), Masuj i Ibuse (Black Rain), StisakuE n d o (Silence), Takeshi Ka iko (Darkness inSummer) and Kb Abe (The Box Man) aswell as Tales oflse, The Tale of Genji a n d The

Tale of Heike. T he a u t ho r d i d no t a t t e mp t t oc rea te a theore t i ca l f ramework in to whicha l l the works ment ioned would f i t , r a the rhe shows the reader those aspec t s of anda t t i tudes to t rad i t ion which a re m os t ap pa r -ent in each individual work. The pas t , werealize, is kept alive as a nostalgic memoryor subjected to a cr i t ica l examinat ion; thel i terary masterpieces of the pas t are s t i l limpor tan t source books , bu t the pas t a l soserves as a topic in itself; it is foil andcounte rpar t for the present and remains abasis of all concepts of s tyle and aestheticva lue .

In choos ing the works t rea ted in th i sbook, Rimer hasas he s ta tespaid l i t t lea t t en t ion to wh e the r they a re repr esen ta -t ive or not : he has fol lowed his personalincl inat ions . His psychological ins ight intot he na r r a t ive s a nd h i s de e p un de r s t a nd i ngof the of ten hardly def inable aes thet icqual i ty of Ja pa ne se f ict ion m ak e Rim er 'sin te rp re ta t ion s out s t an ding an d a joy torea d . Rim er ' s book i s the respo nse to a rea lneed , and no one in te res ted in Japanesel i t e ra turebe i t com para t i s t o r g enera lreadershould mis s i t . An appendix wi thDona ld Keene ' s t rans la t ion of "The Ta le oft he Ba mboo Cu t t e r " a nd e x t e ns i ve quo t a -t ions in the book encourage fur the r read-ing . In a s econd ed i t ion , the au thor mightcons ide r en la rg ing chapte r XII , whichdea l s wi th contempora ry wr i t e r s somewhatbr ie f ly ( Ibuse , En do , Ka iko , Abe ) , and heshou ld ad d a bibl iogra phy of cr it ica l worksin Wes te rn l anguages .

I ng r i d S c hus t e r

E V A M . T H O M P S O NWitold GombrowiczBoston : Twayne Publ i sher s , 1979 .P p . 1 7 1 ."This book has been wri t ten as a concise

analys is of Gombrowicz 's l i terary work" (p.9). T h e cla im is subs tan t ia ted in an a dm ira-b le way in Thompson ' s cont r ibu t ion toT w a yne Wor l d A u t ho r s S e r i e s , de s p i t es ome r a t he r da un t i ng r e qu i r e me n t s o f t heformat of the Series , for which, needless tosay , the au thors a re no t respons ib le .G o m b r o w i c z , n o v e l is t , p l a y w r i g h t ,th inker , enfan t t e r r ib le , known main ly for

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