Donne alla finestra e romanzi cinesi: immaginario maschile e volontà d'emancipazione femminile in "Gan", di Mori Ogai

L'articolo è una breve monografia sul romanzo "Gan" ("L'oca selvatica", 1911-15), dello scrittore giapponese moderno Mori Ogai (pseudon. di Mori Rintaro, 1862-1922). In esso si tenta di stabilire una relazione tra l'opera dello scrittore giapponese e le sue frequentazioni letterarie cinesi, mediante un'analisi dei riferimenti cinesi che compaiono nel romanzo

Recepcja kanonu Szekspirowskiego w Japonii w XIX i XX wieku: przejście od adaptacji (hon’an) do przekładu (hon’yaku) jako forma reinterpretacji międzykulturowej

Adaptation (hon’an) and translation (hon’yaku) of Shakespeare’s plays in Japan in the age of Modernization (the Meiji and Taishō periods, 1868–1912 and 1912–26, respectively) both constitute complex objects of study. A careful analysis of this apparently ambiguous cultural entity offers a glimpse into the wide-ranging interests that the Meiji literati displayed in inheriting and interpreting Shakespeare’s cultural heritage. In their recent review of Shakespeare’s reception and performance in Asia, Kennedy and Young (2010) distinguish the kinds of reception that Shakespearean canon received in Asian countries by means of three main strategies whose cultural significance varies greatly depending on the social and cultural context. These are: nationalist appropriation (specifically referring to China), colonial instigation (India), and intercultural revision. The authors seem to imply that, of these three, intercultural revision – the most innovative, referring to productions that adapt the text to foreign modes of performance – is not associated with any specific geographical space. Using this theoretical framework, aim to demonstrate how the kind of performances originating from this intercultural adaptation, and often giving the most impressive results in terms of visual inventions as well, defy time as well as location, and, in the case of Japan, may be traced back to the time when Shakespeare’s canon was first introduced, i.e. the Meiji Era (1868–1912). This would help to understand the conceptual and cultural basis for the constant efforts of Japanese directors involved in recent production of Shakespeare’s plays in the theatre and as well as films, or other more pop-culture oriented media; efforts, in fact, increasingly appreciated worldwide. In the works of Shakespeare’s first Japanese translators and critics, there is a shift from adaptation of western dramas (including Shakespeare), which was the most popular mode of staging Shakespeare’s works from the 1880s, to verbatim translations of his plays, which had virtually substituted any other means of adaptation by the first two decades of the 20th century. This shift clearly reflects the increasing awareness of Japanese intellectuals of the need to acknowledge the greatness of Shakespeare as a playwright as well as the importance of creating a new concept of modern Japanese drama upon the premise of giving relevance to the text and the author in more general terms. Adapting or translating Shakespeare’s plays in Japanese in the 19th and 20th century is an occasion for Meiji intellectuals to rethink completely the theatrical genre, redefining its borders and the overall value. In this respect a closer examination of critical essays by the renowned translators of Shakespeare, such as Tsubouchi Shōyō (1859–1935) and Mori Ōgai (1862–1922) is a key strategy in order to assess Shakespeare’s pivotal role in the development of Japanese drama. We shall present, therefore, excerpts from diverse essays in order to tackle the fundamental question of the overall significance of Shakespeare’s reception in the cultural context of Modern Japan

Donne alla finestra e romanzi cinesi: immaginario maschile e volontà d'emancipazione femminile in "Gan", di Mori Ogai

L'articolo è una breve monografia sul romanzo "Gan" ("L'oca selvatica", 1911-15), dello scrittore giapponese moderno Mori Ogai (pseudon. di Mori Rintaro, 1862-1922). In esso si tenta di stabilire una relazione tra l'opera dello scrittore giapponese e le sue frequentazioni letterarie cinesi, mediante un'analisi dei riferimenti cinesi che compaiono nel romanzo

Donne alla finestra e romanzi cinesi: immaginario maschile e volontà d'emancipazione femminile in "Gan", di Mori Ogai

L'articolo è una breve monografia sul romanzo "Gan" ("L'oca selvatica", 1911-15), dello scrittore giapponese moderno Mori Ogai (pseudon. di Mori Rintaro, 1862-1922). In esso si tenta di stabilire una relazione tra l'opera dello scrittore giapponese e le sue frequentazioni letterarie cinesi, mediante un'analisi dei riferimenti cinesi che compaiono nel romanzo

“Tra realtà e finzione: la rivalutazione della narrativa premoderna nella critica letteraria Meiji”

L’intervento indaga lo spostamento di prospettiva operato nei confronti del letterato Takizawa Bakin (Okikuni, 1767-1848), ad opera di alcuni importanti letterati del periodo Meiji (1868-1912), tra cui Tsubouchi Shoyo, Mori Ogai e Koda Rohan. La rivalutazione della narrativa premoderna nella critica letteraria Meiji è senz'altro un fenomeno da rapportare al processo di trasformazione del romanzo giapponese in senso moderno, mediante il ricorso offerto dalla narrativa d'introspezione psicologica ampiamente discussi anche nel campo della critica letteraria a cavallo tra Ottocento e Novecento, di cui sono analizzati alcuni esempi. L’analisi degli elementi della prosa di Bakin che attrassero l’attenzione degli scrittori Meiji è operata sulla base della registrazione dei dibattiti (gappyô) pubblicati sulle riviste dell’epoca e dei giudizi espressi nel romanzo-saggio Unmei (Destino, 1919) di Kôda Rohan

A Meiji Writer's Outlook on Chinese Literature: the Case of Mori Ogai

In this paper I am going to analyze the impact of Chinese culture on the Japanese modern writer Mori Ogai (actual name Mori Rintaro,1862-1922). Ogai, along with Natsume Soseki (1867-1916), is regarded as one of the preeminent writers of the Meiji period. The article starts by reconsidering the impact of Ogai's early training in the Chinese Classics on the literature of his mature years. When reading Chinese literature, Ogai based his interest on a wide variety of literary works, sometimes even wider than that of the scholars of the preceeding Tokugawa period. One of the reasons why Meiji writers were able to pick up selected readings among such numerous variety is that since the introduction of Western thought in Japan, intellectuals had formally changed the way they judged the value of literary works, and this would, in turn, work towards influencing favourably the process of rediscovery of forgotten Chinese and Japanese works. Ogai thoroughly worked towards broadening his knowledge of Chinese and Japanese literature, along with the study of Western fonts. I am going to present a series of texts by Ōgai that demonstrate his interest in Chinese studies. I am going to use these examples to discuss how Ogai’s outlook on Chinese literature changed over time, to the point that he developed a more mature approach to the study of Chinese culture, and Chinese language itself. He was not entirely alone in this, as his views on Chinese literature were partly shared by some scholars belonging to the same literary circle, and costantly participating in the very same forums, such as Mori Kainan (1863-1911) and Koda Rohan (1867-1947), another well-known novelist of the period and acclaimed scholar of Chinese. The material I am going to comment on, such as the forums called Hyoshinryo Iroku (‘Scattered Recordings on Notable Works’), transcribed and printed on literary magazines, clearly show that Meiji intellectuals used to hold literary debates on subjects drawn from alternatively Western, Japanese and Chinese sources; this tendency to rely on sources from both Western and Asian tradition is evident in several other critical essays of Ogai, which I shall summarize throughout this article. Lastly, I will bring two concrete examples revealing how his knowledge of the Chinese language and culture enabled the author to derive literary themes and techniques from Chinese fiction. These are the short stories Yasui Fujin (‘The Wife of Yasui’), and Gyogenki (‘Yu Xuanji’)

"Rekishi Shosetsu o lettura di genere? La condizione femminile in due racconti storici di Mori Ogai"

This paper examines the indirect influence that female writers of the turn of the XIXth Century and their writings exerted over some choices of content in the historical fiction of modern Japanese author Mori Ôgai (actual name Mori Rintaro,1862-1922). The main concern and focus of the dissertation is female characters’ depiction in the short stories Gyogenki and Yasui Fujin (1915-16), partially translated throughout the dissetation. Interactions between Ôgai and his circle of male literati and some important woman writers of the Meiji era are also discussed. The dissertation aims at assessing and discussing contemporary critics' views on Mori Ôgai’s historical fiction as a means of social analysis. In order to shape this new perspective on the significance of Ôgai's historical narratives, a thorough reconsidering of the impact of Ôgai's literary output on his public of mostly male literati is outlined; his investigation of role of women in premodern Chinese and Japanese society, as well the influence of his early training in Chinese and Japanese classics on the literature of his mature years, are also briefly discussed elements of investigation that further incentivate Ôgai's definite shift from fiction to history-in-fiction. These represent a modern man's understanding of the cultural past of his country; Ôgai's heroines are therefore to be considered a compelling cultural model and the answer to a social demand, the relatively few elements of departure from historical truth being, in the characterization of Ôgai's women, an occasional reliance on symbolism directed as a warning to a relentlessly evolving society. Ôgai's portrayals, though sometimes different from their real counterpart, appear then clearly to be much more the likenesses of a factual truth than historical characters fictionalized. The two concrete examples I chose to focus on to complete the dissertation are Ôgai's short stories Yasui Fujin (‘The Wife of Yasui’), and Gyogenki (‘Yu Xuanji’), whose setting is ancient Japan and China respectively

Teoria e prassi del romanzo storico giapponese fra Ottocento e Novecento

Dopo una breve disamina che individua alcune linee concettuali considerate come l'origine della narrativa storica giapponese in epoca classica, l'articolo prende in esame la produzione storica di autori giapponesi noti negli ambienti letterari fra la fine dell'Ottocento e l'inizio del Novecento, alcuni dei quali considerati importanti teorici del romanzo moderno, o autori di fiction storica, quali Mori Ogai (1862-1922), Tsubouchi Shoyo (1859-1935), Yamada Bimyo (1868-1910).After a brief survey that identifies some conceptual lines considered to be the origin of the concept of historical narrative in Japan of the classical era, the article examines the historical production of Japanese authors known in literary circles in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, some of which are regarded as important theorists of the modern novel or writers of historical fiction, such as Mori Ogai (1862-1922), Tsubouchi Shoyo (1859-1935), Yamada Bimyo (1868-1910)