The Rhetoric of Confession: <i>Shishosetsu</i> in Early Twentieth-Century Japanese Fiction

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University of California Press, 1988 - 333 pages
The shishosetsu is a Japanese form of autobiographical fiction that flourished during the first two decades of this century. Focusing on the works of Chikamatsu Shuko, Shiga Naoya, and Kasai Zenzo, Edward Fowler explores the complex and paradoxical nature of shishosetsu, and discusses its linguistic, literary and cultural contexts.

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Contents

Fictions and Fabrications
3
Language and the Illusion of Presence
28
Shishôsetsu Criticism and the Myth
43
Tôkoku Doppo Hôgetsu
73
Katai Hômei
103
Readers Writers Critics
128
The Hero as Fool
149
The Hero as Sage
187
The Hero as Victim
248
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About the author (1988)

Edward Fowler teaches in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of California, Irvine.

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