Week 2 (Lecture) - Japanese Modernism

Question 1

What does modernism challenge?

Answer 1

The integrity of the self.

What is an I? What is the self that has become the focus of literature and discussion in the I-novel. Plays with form as well as content.

Question 2

What did modernism (in art) argue? What were the underlying principles (three points)?

Answer 2

Modernism argued that we need new, radical ways of looking at society. Underlying principles:

1. rejection of history and conservative values (realistic depiction of subjects)
2. innovation and experimentation with form (shapes, lines, colours) with a tendency to abstraction
3. emphasis on materials and processes (different media, montage, photo-montage)

Question 3

What was modernism inspired by?

Answer 3

Various political and social agendas. Often utopian.

Question 4

What was modernism often associated with?

Answer 4

Ideal visions of human life and society and a belief in progress.

Question 5

Describe modernism in literature (three points)

Answer 5

• centrality of novel is challenged by other media
• fragmentation of narrative (grammar and structure)
• in part a reaction to WWII - time is fragmented, nature loses the power to comfort

Question 6

Modernism dealt with a ‘crisis in _______’

Answer 6

representation

Question 7

What was different about modernism compared to previous literary movements?

Answer 7

Breakdown in traditional modes of expression and representation, and rejection of existing aesthetic and literary traditions.

Question 8

What was modernism characterised by?

Answer 8

self-criticism, interruption, nihilism, defamiliarisation. Tyler: associated with anti-naturalism, cosmopolitanism, multiple or fragmented selves, actionism. Experimental and obsessed with technology.

Question 9

What becomes of the self in modernist literature?

Answer 9

The self as unknowable. Self becomes something foreign, something that we cannot know. Hint that there is an order that exists between the order that we know. Maybe there is a world that we do not and cannot know. Order that exists between the conscious mind.

Question 10

What was the shinkankaku-ha and what was it about?

Answer 10

• prewar literary school led by Yokemitsu Riichi and Kawabata Yasunari
• emphasis on exploring ‘new perceptions’ and ‘new impressions’

Question 11

Which two kinds of stories did Akutagawa Ryunosuke write?

Answer 11

1. Reworking of classical literary pieces (e.g. In A Grove)

2. experimental short stories, many of which describe a mental breakdown (e.g. Cogwheels)