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58 - Translated fiction, political fiction

from Part V - The modern period (1868 to present)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2016

By
Dennis Washburn
Edited by
Haruo Shirane ,
Tomi Suzuki  and
David Lurie
Haruo Shirane
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
Tomi Suzuki
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
David Lurie
Affiliation:
Columbia University, New York
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Summary

Meiji Japan may be described, in both instrumental and metaphorical senses, as a translation culture. Almost all the oligarchy's policies aimed at modernizing the state were dependent to some degree on the translation of Western political, legal, and technological knowledge. It was politically advantageous for modernizers to disparage the Tokugawa period as frivolous and backward, and even conservative intellectuals saw popular forms of pre-Meiji literature and storytelling as old-fashioned. The hybridity of the political novel is apparent in two of the popular and influential works: Setchu bai by Suehiro Tetcho, which is marked by the intrusions of political dialogues into a love-romance narrative; and Kajin no kigu by Shiba Shiro, a romance centered around stories about the struggle for freedom and national independence. The important achievement of translations and political fiction was in taking advantage of new media to establish the novel as the artistic medium of modern culture that represented the sensibilities of an emerging middle-class readership.

Keywords

cultural artifactsgolden ageChikamatsu Monzaemonvisual culturesTokugawa Japanjorurikabuki dramapuppet theaterTakemoto theater
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of Japanese Literature , pp. 578 - 582
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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