Overview

Tanaka Yasuo's Nantonaku, kurisutaru (Somehow, Crystal, 1980) and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchin (Kitchen, 1987) have been denigrated as em-ble-matic of a so-called ""bastardized line"" of Japanese literature, characterized by an un-abashed celebration of a ""late-capitalist"" consumerist ethos. Close rea-dings of these works are undertaken in order to demonstrate that, while these works are reflective of late-capitalist postmodern Japan (the de-ve-lop-ment of which is delineated prior to the readings), they nonetheless posit uniquely post-modern strategies for critically engaging issues of identity for-ma-tion and main-tenance, and the creation of meaning as they appear in the con-temporary Japanese socio-cultural nexus. I argue that if such strategies are not immedi-ately apparent, it is because they hold to what critic Fredric Jameson, in his dis-cussion of the requisites for a ""new political art,"" calls ""the truth of postmo-dernism."" This work will interest those concerned with postwar and contemporary Japa-nese culture, society and literature, as well as those engaged in the study of ""global culture.""

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9783836427500

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