 | Escape from the Wasteland: Romanticism and Realism in the Fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo Subjects: Japanese fiction -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Romanticism; Realism in literature; Mishima Yukio 1925–1970 -- Criticism and interpretation; Ōe Kenzaburō 1935– -- Criticism and interpretation; Lurid depictions of sex and impotence, themes of emperor worship and violence, the use of realism and myth--these characterize the fiction of Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo. Susan Napier discovers surprising similarities as well as provocative dissimilarities in the work of two writers of radically different political orientations. Napier places Yukio's and Kenzaburo's fiction in the context of postwar Japanese political and social realities and, in a new preface for the paperback edition, reflects on each writer's position in the tradition of Japanese literature. |
