This past semester at Hamilton, I attended a course with both Greg and Grant titled Modern Life and War in Japanese Literature. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century, we read translated poems, novels, and critiques, as well as watched various movies, that discussed topics such as the Second Sino-Japanese War, feminism, the Atomic Bomb, the Occupation Era, and post-war Japan. There was a lot of reading and writing to be done, but overall the course was excellent. I’d never read any Japanese literature before and was pleasantly suprised at the quality of the books that we read. For those interested in the books we read, here are the required novels that were needed:
My favorite book that we read was definitely Murakami’s The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. Written post-War, it was just an interesting and exciting novel that mesmarized the reader. I’d be hard-pressed to describe the novel here, but I’ll try and provide a couple of key words: gender roles, war, and modern Japanese society; intrigue, suspense, pleasure, and sadness. It’s a long book - 600 odd pages - but if you have the time, I’d definitely suggest picking up a copy. It’s a novel so it reads quickly and once you get a decent way in, it’s hard to put down the book!
Followed closely behind was The Sea and Poison by Endo. It discussed a vivisection that took place during World War II and was well written and again, impossible to put down. It questions the morality of such an operation, illustrates the consequences of war, and again, provides an interesting look at Japanese Society.
The other books were all good in one way or another. Hiroshima was a republished version of John Hersey’s article that first appeared in the New Yorker and while factual, was written in the fashion of a novel. The Crazy Iris was a compilation of stories about the atomic bomb’s of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and featured abstract and not-so-abstract stories. All told, I came out of this course with a much better understanding of Japan. The county’s gone through a lot and from reading just this small cross-section of books, you’ll be able to gain a greater understanding.
Copyright © 2000 - 2007, Aram Kudurshian. All rights reserved.
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