In March, The Japan Foundation, Sydney will present a three-part talk series titled 'Read Japan: A Booklover’s Guide to Japanese Literature in Translation, 1960 – Now'. The talks introduce novels published in Japan over three consecutive 20-year periods (the 1960s-70s, 1980s-90s, and 2000 to present) focusing on works that have been translated into English. Each talk offers a window into the social and political context of the time, as well as important writers and movements, and comes with a shortlist of recommended books to create a roadmap for exploring Japanese literature. Discount vouchers and giveaways available from Books Kinokuniya Sydney. 

ABE, MISHIMA & OE: SOLVING YOUR EXISTENTIAL CRISES SINCE 1960

Transformation. Protest. Repression. Identity.

1960s and 1970s Japan is a time of astonishing change. It is the period of Japan’s “economic miracle,” with GDP growing at more than 10% for much of the 1960s. It is a time of massive demographic shift as people from the countryside flood urban centres, causing cities like Tokyo to more than triple their population in twenty-five years. It is the end of the postwar, when Japan begins again to participate in the international community.

It is also a time of crisis. The government’s determination to renew the US-Japan Mutual Security Treaty and extend US military presence in Japan leads to nationwide strikes and protests, both violent and peaceful. It is a time when many of Japan’s writers find themselves in the midst of a crisis of identity. The old Japan is gone, but it is not yet clear what will, or what should, take its place.

This talk will examine three giants of postwar Japanese literature—Kobo Abe (1924-1993), Yukio Mishima (1925-1970), and Nobel laureate Kenzaburo Oe (b. 1935)—and discuss how they sought to construct a philosophical and moral response to the upheaval and change that engulfed them.

SPEAKER: Mark Gibeau
Senior Lecturer, College of Asia and the Pacific, The Australian National University

This is the first of three events in the talk series, Read Japan: A Booklover’s Guide to Japanese Literature in Translation, 1960-Now.