Open Talk “Abe Kōbō and Manchuria: Between Fiction and History”
Abe Kōbō, often known as “Japan’s Kafka,” spent his adolescent years in Manchuria, a former Japanese colony, where he experienced defeat and repatriation. This talk focuses on one of his early works “Beasts Head for Home” (Kemono-tachi wa kokyō o mezasu, 1957). By closely examining themes such as madness, metamorphosis, and loss of memory, which persist throughout Kōbō’s oeuvre, He explores the gap between the novel’s fictional space and the Japanese Empire’s historical reality. In addition, he discusses the novel’s supposed “structural flaw” as suggested by some critics at its time of publication. In so doing, he aims to question the framework of repatriation literature, which tends to uncritically accept postwar Japan as the returnees’ spiritual home.
- Day & Time：May 27th, 2023 (Saturday), 14:00-15:00
- Venue：Lab (2nd floor of WIHL)
- Language：Japanese (Q&A: Japanese/English)
- Participation：Free, We encourage participants who would like to join this event to make a reservation(C) in advance. Reservation
- Presented by the Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities, with support from the Waseda International House of Literature
Lecture
Jiajun Liang
Dr. Jiajun Liang, an assistant professor in the Global Arts Studies Program at UC Merced, holds a Ph.D. in Asian Languages and Cultures from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). His research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese literature, animation, and media.
Facilitator
Lin Wenjiun
Yanai Initiative Postdoctoral Research Fellow
contact
Yanai Initiative for Globalizing Japanese Humanities : [email protected]
