This thesis is an examination of the character of wakashu as depicted in Ihara Saikaku's late 17th-century collection of short stories Nanshoku ōkagami. It looks at overall similarities between the...Show moreThis thesis is an examination of the character of wakashu as depicted in Ihara Saikaku's late 17th-century collection of short stories Nanshoku ōkagami. It looks at overall similarities between the stories and constructs a general view of this type of sexuality-wise intriguing youth as well as comparing it to the earlier medieval character of chigo.Show less
Bachelor thesis | Film- en literatuurwetenschap (BA)
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In deze scriptie wordt gekeken naar waarom de kat zo veel wordt gerepresenteerd in Moderne Japanse literatuur. Beschreven wordt de rol van de kat in drie verschillende moderne Japanse literaire...Show moreIn deze scriptie wordt gekeken naar waarom de kat zo veel wordt gerepresenteerd in Moderne Japanse literatuur. Beschreven wordt de rol van de kat in drie verschillende moderne Japanse literaire werken, in verband met de moderne Japanse maatschappij. Verschillende maatschappelijke thema's worden aangekaart en in verband gebracht met de rol van de kat. Ook wordt er gekeken naar waarom de kat in veel culturen vaak een grote rol speelt.Show less
In recent years, in the field of contemporary literature, greater attention has been put on literary productions dealing with environmental pollution or destruction, prompting the surge of...Show moreIn recent years, in the field of contemporary literature, greater attention has been put on literary productions dealing with environmental pollution or destruction, prompting the surge of environmental criticism – ecocriticism – to a well developed and independent discipline within the environmental humanities. Nevertheless, the field, as Karen Thornber correctly noted, has been mainly focused on issues raised by western literary works. Environmental fictions – or ecofictions – produced in East Asia, despite their preoccupations with pollution and environmental disaster, are usually excluded from the analyses of ecocritics. In Japan in particular, after the Fukushima disaster of March 3, 2011, varied literary works – from short stories to novels and poems – have addressed topics of nuclear pollution and environmental disaster. Therefore, it becomes paramount to focus on this gap in ecocriticism and start to develop more comprehensive studies of ecofictions expanding beyond literary production in English or western languages. This thesis, presenting as a case study the novel Somersault (1999) – by the Japanese author O̅e Kenzaburō, tries to address this gap by focusing on the narrativization of nuclear disaster in relation to the representations of time and space. After the introduction of an analytical tool comprehensive of various theoretical concepts, this study endeavors to demonstrate the importance of accounting for those elements revealing deeper environmental concerns that are often overlooked by critics in literary productions. My study of narrrativizations of time and space, as they take shape in this Japanese case study, shall prove productive also for the analysis of other ecofictions produced in different languages and arising from varied cultural traditions. Furthermore, an analytical tool linking together temporality and space could enable comparative studies between East Asian and Western ecofictions. This study could thus contribute to the field of ecocriticism by allowing for a diversification in the understanding of perceptions of time and space in literary works from different literary and cultural traditions dealing with the threat, or in the aftermath, of an environmental disaster.Show less
