{"id":4058,"date":"2023-04-24T11:47:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-24T02:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/culture\/wihl\/?p=4058"},"modified":"2023-05-10T12:31:45","modified_gmt":"2023-05-10T03:31:45","slug":"open-talk-abe-kobo-and-manchuria-between-fiction-and-history-5-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/culture\/wihl\/other-en\/4058","title":{"rendered":"Open Talk “Abe K\u014db\u014d and Manchuria: Between Fiction and History” (5\/27)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open Talk “Abe K\u014db\u014d and Manchuria: Between Fiction and History”<\/em><\/h3>\n

Abe K\u014db\u014d, often known as \u201cJapan\u2019s Kafka,\u201d 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 \u201cBeasts Head for Home\u201d (Kemono-tachi wa koky\u014d o mezasu, 1957). By closely examining themes such as madness, metamorphosis, and loss of memory, which persist throughout K\u014db\u014d\u2019s oeuvre, He explores the gap between the novel\u2019s fictional space and the Japanese Empire\u2019s historical reality. In addition, he discusses the novel\u2019s supposed \u201cstructural flaw\u201d 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\u2019 spiritual home.<\/p>\n