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Itaru KawashimaJapanese literary scholar, critic
Date of Birth: 15.02.1935
Country:  Japan |
Content:
- Kiyoshi Kawasaki: A Groundbreaking Literary Critic
- Literary Debut and Field Research
- "Reality Takes Revenge" and Culmination of Career
- Ethical Duty and Responsibility
- Reception and Suppression
- Legacy and Revival
Kiyoshi Kawasaki: A Groundbreaking Literary Critic
Early Life and EducationKiyoshi Kawasaki was born in Sapporo and graduated from Hokkaido University's Department of Japanese Literature in 1958. He subsequently pursued doctoral studies there but left in 1964 without completing them.
Literary Debut and Field Research
Kawasaki embarked on his literary career in 1967 with an article on Yasunari Kawabata in the journal "Gunzo." He began teaching at Iwate University during this period. His early research focused on meticulously comparing autobiography and fiction in the works of Kawabata and other prominent Japanese authors.
"Reality Takes Revenge" and Culmination of Career
Kawasaki's influential series of articles, "Reality Takes Revenge," marked both the peak and the end of his academic career. Published from 1974 to 1977 in the literary journal "Kikan Geijutsu," the series examined autobiographical and event-based works by various authors. Kawasaki argued that the reality underlying these works, often consciously or subconsciously altered by the authors, ultimately compromised the integrity of the literary product.
Ethical Duty and Responsibility
Tokio Iguti, a contemporary critic, recognized an ethical dimension in Kawasaki's work. According to Iguti, the authors Kawasaki analyzed felt a duty to address significant events through their writing, attempting to revisit and reconstruct them on paper.
Reception and Suppression
Despite the profound implications of Kawasaki's critical approach, the Japanese literary establishment allegedly dismissed it as sensationalism and voyeurism. Consequently, Kawasaki faced difficulties publishing his research. His pivotal work, "Reality Takes Revenge," was only published in book form a decade later, after various rejections.
Legacy and Revival
After Kawasaki's untimely death in 2001, only a small number of literary magazines published obituaries, including a tribute by Iguti in the little-known journal "Hantikkyu." It was Iguti, who had worked under Kawasaki at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, who later revived and expanded Kawasaki's ideas in his book "Crisis and Struggle," exploring the works of Kenzaburo Oe and Kenji Nakagami.
