ABE KŌBŌ – BETWEEN MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM. REFLECTIONS ON THE NOVEL KANGAROO NOTEBOOK
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Keywords

Abe Kōbō
postwar school
Murakami
modernism
postmodernism
Kangarū noto

How to Cite

Melanowicz, M. (2016). ABE KŌBŌ – BETWEEN MODERNISM AND POSTMODERNISM. REFLECTIONS ON THE NOVEL KANGAROO NOTEBOOK. Porównania, 18, 173–182. https://doi.org/10.14746/p.2016.18.10721

Abstract

While reminding Polish readers of the importance of the work of Abe Kōbō (1924-1993), a writer who passed away over twenty years ago, to Japanese literature, the author of this paper puts forward a proposal for the categorisation of Abe’s novels, stories and dramas. The author demonstrates that throughout his oeuvre, Abe used a convention typical of European Modernism. However, in his last novel, Kangarū nōto (Kangaroo notebook, 1991), which has been analysed in greater detail in this paper, the writer employed the topos of the absurd, fragmentation of the main character, and hybridisation i.e. literary devices used by the European and American Postmodern novel. Although many of those techniques had sporadically appeared in his earlier works, the structure of the fictional world and the protagonist of the Kangaroo notebook contains a sum of those devices. The nameless hero of the novel, afflicted by a mysterious disease that causes radish sprouts to grow on his shin, is advised by a doctor to travel to hot springs, and embarks on his last journey that takes him through underground corridors into the unknown.

https://doi.org/10.14746/p.2016.18.10721
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EPUB (Język Polski)
MOBI (Język Polski)

References

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Abe Kōbō. Kangarū nōto (Kangurowy notatnik). Tōkyō: Shinchōsha, 1991.

Iles Timothy. Abe Kobo – an Exploration of his Prose, Drama and Theatre. Fucecchio (Firenze). Italy: European Press Academic Publishing, 2000.

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Gazda Grzegorz. Słownik europejskich kierunków i grup literackich XX wieku. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, 2000.

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Melanowicz Mikołaj. Japońskie narracje. Studia o pisarzach współczesnych. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2004.

Nycz Ryszard (red.). Postmodernizm. Antologia przekładów. Kraków: Wydawnictwo Baran i Suszczyński, 1997.

„Abe Kōbō sanjūsū tsū no tegami sōsaku e no omoi chokusetsu ni otōto kiou sugata mo” (Ponad 30 listów Abe Kōbō, pragnienie twórczości i entuzjastyczne poparcie dla młodszego brata). MSN sankei nyūsu. 2013. Web. (29.05.2013) <http://sankei.jp.msn.com/life/ news/130529/art13052907 470004-n1.htm>