Overview

First published in 1988 and now available in a photo-reprint paperback edition, this book provides an important perspective on the theatre, culture, and politics of Japan in the 1960s. It contains translations of five plays representative of the period, with analytical commentary by a leading authority on postwar Japanese drama. The author's central thesis is that the 1960 demonstrations against the renewal of the U.S.-Japan Mutual Security Treaty was a major turning point in Japanese intellectual life, one characterized by disillusionment with the old left and the legacy of prewar left-wing formulations and by a quest for an alternative to the dominant Hegelian-Marxist system. The book argues that the 1960s were a period of eschatological reflection in which profound questions about ultimate ends were being asked.

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9781885445162

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David Goodman (1946-2011) was the editor-translator of Land of Volcanic Ash, editor of Five Plays by Kishida Kunio, and author of Japanese Drama and Culture in the 1960s. He was Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

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