Beyond Nation: Time, Writing, and Community in the Work of Abe kobo - Couverture rigide

Calichman, Richard

 
9780804797016: Beyond Nation: Time, Writing, and Community in the Work of Abe kobo

Synopsis

In the work of writer Abe Kōbō (1924-1993), characters are alienated both from themselves and from one another. Through close readings of Abe's work, Richard Calichman reveals how time and writing have the ability to unground identity. Over time, attempts to create unity of self cause alienation, despite government attempts to convince people to form communities (and nations) to recapture a sense of wholeness. Art, then, must resist the nation-state and expose its false ideologies.

Calichman argues that Abe's attack on the concept of national affiliation has been neglected through his inscription as a writer of Japanese literature. At the same time, the institution of Japan Studies works to tighten the bond between nation-state and individual subject. Through Abe's essays and short stories, he shows how the formation of community is constantly displaced by the notions of time and writing. Beyond Nation thus analyzes the elements of Orientalism, culturalism, and racism that often underlie the appeal to collective Japanese identity.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l?auteur

Richard Calichman is Professor of Japanese Studies at The City College of New York and translator of The Frontier Within: Selected Writings of Abe Kobo (2013).

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.