Who Would Pioneer A New Literature, At Once Japanese And Modern, That Could Speak To The Change And Transformation

“Who would pioneer a new literature, at once Japanese and ‘modern’, that could speak to the change and transformation going on around them? Mori Ōgai and Natsume Sōseki… were among the first of those who stepped forward to take up this challenge. Certainly no one could have been better equipped for the task: gifted in European languages, they excelled in classical Chinese as well, and had a deep knowledge of Japan’s literary traditions. Yet the task was daunting. Writers of fiction were dismissed as frivolous and vulgar by traditional society, which language for literature, which would reflect how people actually spoke and which could be used to express exciting new concepts like ‘love’ and ‘individualism’, had to be created from scratch… This id not mean, however, that the trail blazed by Ōgai, Sōseki, and their contemporaries ran parallel to that of Western literature. These were no blind admirers of what the West had to offer - Sōseki, for one, felt that he had been somehow ‘cheated’ by English literature. Ōgai had studied in Germany, Sōseki in England, and both were acutely aware of the features of foreign culture - the language, the customs, and the sense of beauty and form - were altogether different from Japan’s. To create a new, modern Japanese literature, they had to carve new trails, not follow old ones. They had to be experimental writers. This meant that, once they felt they had taken what they could use from Western literature, they moved on. Ōgai eventually turned to traditional materials - legends like ‘Sansho the Steward’… and the lives of historical figures - while Sōseki, a brilliant theoretician, was able to anticipate developments yet to occur in the West. Through their efforts, and those of the other trail-blazers, by 1910 the Japanese short story was already established as a genre linked with, but not identical to, its counterpart in the West.”

—

Theodore W. Goossen, the Introduction to The Oxford Book of Japanese Short Stories

Found a half-used notebook with a cute little phrase! I have way too many notebooks that I don’t use because I think they’re too pretty but I’m going to use them anyways.

Also, Yay for no Exams! Now I just need to worry about actually being motivated to do my other assignments...

100 likes!

If this doesn’t describe me I don’t know what does

does anybody else have the “i have to do everything to the extreme” issue??

like i either don’t work / do anything productive for weeks or will work 14 hour days on something. i’ll either read 300 pages a day or not touch a book for months. i’ll desperately want social interaction and not leave people alone or i won’t communicate with anyone on my own accord for weeks. i have to either eat excessively and only consume junk food or eat extremely clean and be constantly exercising.

i don’t know what balance is!!!! i’m not even trying to be quirky or make an adhd meme this is genuinely the worst aspect of my life and i hate it :)

It’s snowed like crazy for 5 minutes, then the sun came out and now there’s frosted ice everywhere??? Also hella windy.

It’s MAY why is it still snowing??? Some pls expla8m

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