Week 1 (Seminar) - Proletarian Literature

Question 1

Aspects of the Proletarian Literary Movement in Japan:

What does this text put emphasis on?

Answer 1

Organisational formation of the proletarian movement.

Question 2

What is the proletarian movement strongly influenced by?

Answer 2

Left-wing political thought (Marx, Lenin, Communism).

Question 3

What factors (both internal and external) caused the movement to split and reorganise several times and eventually weakened it?

Answer 3

Events outside literature: 1923 earthquake, censorship by government
Internal struggles: divergent views on literary priorities, controversy on formalism

Question 4

Why are there claims that proletarian works are ‘of no artistic value’? (four reasons)

Answer 4

• followed class struggle viewpoint too strictly
• necessity to keep up with current theoretical trends
• political themes too simplistic and crudely integrated
• old-fashioned melodramatic characters

Question 5

What are the legacies of proletarian literature?

Answer 5

• depiction of violence
• political and social consciousness to modern Japanese literature
• methodological innovations

Question 6

What is the goal of the proletarian literary movement?

Answer 6

To contribute to the transformation of society.

Question 7

What was the nature of the network of the proletarian literary movement?

Answer 7

Internationally organised, network spread over Russia, France, Germany, China, etc. but at the same time was under constant surveillance and threat of repression.

Question 8

Why do some intellectuals dismiss proletarian literature as a whole?

Answer 8

Due to its attachment to Marxism and Communism and in light of failed socialist projects.