Sōseki

Modern Japan's Greatest Novelist

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Asian, Far Eastern, Nonfiction, History, Japan, Biography & Memoir, Literary
Cover of the book Sōseki by John Nathan, Columbia University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: John Nathan ISBN: 9780231546973
Publisher: Columbia University Press Publication: May 15, 2018
Imprint: Columbia University Press Language: English
Author: John Nathan
ISBN: 9780231546973
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication: May 15, 2018
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Language: English

Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) was the father of the modern novel in Japan, chronicling the plight of bourgeois characters caught between familiar modes of living and the onslaught of Western values and conventions. Yet even though generations of Japanese high school students have been expected to memorize passages from his novels and he is routinely voted the most important Japanese writer in national polls, he remains less familiar to Western readers than authors such as Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Mishima.

In this biography, John Nathan provides a lucid and vivid account of a great writer laboring to create a remarkably original oeuvre in spite of the physical and mental illness that plagued him all his life. He traces Sōseki’s complex and contradictory character, offering rigorous close readings of Sōseki’s groundbreaking experiments with narrative strategies, irony, and multiple points of view as well as recounting excruciating hospital stays and recurrent attacks of paranoid delusion. Drawing on previously untranslated letters and diaries, published reminiscences, and passages from Sōseki’s fiction, Nathan renders intimate scenes of the writer’s life and distills a portrait of a tormented yet unflaggingly original author. The first full-length study of Sōseki in fifty years, Nathan’s biography elevates Sōseki to his rightful place as a great synthesizer of literary traditions and a brilliant chronicler of universal experience who, no less than his Western contemporaries, anticipated the modernism of the twentieth century.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) was the father of the modern novel in Japan, chronicling the plight of bourgeois characters caught between familiar modes of living and the onslaught of Western values and conventions. Yet even though generations of Japanese high school students have been expected to memorize passages from his novels and he is routinely voted the most important Japanese writer in national polls, he remains less familiar to Western readers than authors such as Kawabata, Tanizaki, and Mishima.

In this biography, John Nathan provides a lucid and vivid account of a great writer laboring to create a remarkably original oeuvre in spite of the physical and mental illness that plagued him all his life. He traces Sōseki’s complex and contradictory character, offering rigorous close readings of Sōseki’s groundbreaking experiments with narrative strategies, irony, and multiple points of view as well as recounting excruciating hospital stays and recurrent attacks of paranoid delusion. Drawing on previously untranslated letters and diaries, published reminiscences, and passages from Sōseki’s fiction, Nathan renders intimate scenes of the writer’s life and distills a portrait of a tormented yet unflaggingly original author. The first full-length study of Sōseki in fifty years, Nathan’s biography elevates Sōseki to his rightful place as a great synthesizer of literary traditions and a brilliant chronicler of universal experience who, no less than his Western contemporaries, anticipated the modernism of the twentieth century.

More books from Columbia University Press

Cover of the book Building the New American Economy by John Nathan
Cover of the book We Need Silence to Find Out What We Think by John Nathan
Cover of the book Mise-en-scène by John Nathan
Cover of the book A Private Life by John Nathan
Cover of the book In Pursuit of Privilege by John Nathan
Cover of the book This Is Not Sufficient by John Nathan
Cover of the book Intimate Strangers by John Nathan
Cover of the book After Christianity by John Nathan
Cover of the book The Taliban's Virtual Emirate by John Nathan
Cover of the book The Future of Religion by John Nathan
Cover of the book The Cerrados of Brazil by John Nathan
Cover of the book Genes, Brains, and Human Potential by John Nathan
Cover of the book Audience Economics by John Nathan
Cover of the book The Moral Fool by John Nathan
Cover of the book The Making of Lee Boyd Malvo by John Nathan
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy