Kawabata and cinema: the ambivalence of knowledge,medium, and influence

Abstract

Many researchers have considered the involvement of Kawabata Yasunari in cinema and the medium's possible influence on his literature. Such approaches, however, tend to assume a definition of the motion pictures as visuality or montage that then influences Kawabata instead of first considering Kawabata's own conception of cinema, his own film theory. By analyzing his writings on film, including his film criticism, short stories involving cinema, and his involvement in the film A Page of Madness, this paper outlines Kawabata's conception of cinema and argues that he developed a portrait of cinema that posed it as a challenge to identity, perception and knowledge itself. Often associated with the female body, the movies became to Kawabata both an object of fascination and a threat, something ultimately to be controlled through literature and the literary subject. What influenced his literature was then perhaps this perception of cinema as posing an epistemic crisis. It is his ambivalence towards this challenge that can serve as a key for elaborating on Kawabata's complicated location within prewar modernism.     

The collaboration of ‘ghostwriting’ and literature – the case of Kawabata Yasunari

Abstract: Kawabata Yasunari is Japan's first Nobel Prize recipient for literature and thus an emblem of the modern Japanese writer, but as this essay demonstrates, this writer's career, like that of so many throughout Japan's premodern and modern history, is spanned by the curious practice of ghostwriting. Taking up the specific case of Kawabata, the article exposes a wider conflict between the modern West's notion of the original artist, underwritten by its idea of individualized creativity, and modern Japan's persistent adherence to ghostwriting's more collaborative premodern concept of creativity. Subjecting fine-grained literary historical analysis to its far-reaching theoretical consequences for the modernness of modern literature, Japanese and otherwise, this essay shows how the spectre of Kawabata's ghostwriting haunts our contemporary, and therefore possibly anachronistic, understanding of ‘modern’ literary practice.     

Spiritualism and modernism in the work of Kawabata Yasunari

Abstract

Kawabata Yasunari held a deep interest in the study of spiritualism from his very youth. He demonstrates his knowledge of the field in his writing in a variety of ways, particularly in the short stories he published during the prewar period. Thus far, scholarship has considered Kawabata's relationship with spiritualism primarily in terms of his biography: there has yet to be a satisfactorily rigorous study taking into account historical context and his use of spiritualism as novelistic technique. This article analyzes Kawabata and spiritualism with respect to modernism by looking at the short stories ‘The Full White Moon’, ‘Requiem’, and ‘Lyric Poem’. This analysis will also help illuminate the diversity of Kawabata's approaches to modernism.     

Kawabata's views of language and the postwar construction of a literary genealogy

Abstract

This paper shows the ways in which, in the immediate post-war period (1945–1951), Kawabata Yasunari (1899–1972) reflected on his earlier, pre-war literary career and re-envisioned his postwar literary trajectory by constructing a new genealogy of the modern novel in Japan, in relationship to the intricate issues of the literary styles of the modern novel, ‘national language’ (kokugo), and the literary tradition. By examining his Shin bunshō tokuhon (New Guide to Literary Language, 1950), which presents Kawabata's past and present views of literary language, I will argue that Kawabata's changing views of language and literary style must be understood in the context of contemporary debates over national language policy and language reform movements. I will show the manner by which Kawabata formulated his views of language in dialogue with his two rival writers: Yokomitsu Riichi (1898–1947) in the prewar period and Tanizaki Junichirō (1886–1965) in the postwar period. As we shall see, the death of his close literary colleague Yokomitsu in 1947 and Tanizaki's unflagging literary exploration during and following the war prompted Kawabata to position himself in a genealogy of modern Japanese literary writers as well as in relationship to the linguistic and literary tradition of Japan.     

France and middle eastern terrorism

Pierre Péan, La Menace. Paris: Fayard, 1987. Pp.306. 95 FF (paperback).

Yves Loiseau, Le Grand Troc: Le labyrinthe des otages françaises au Liban. Paris: Hachette, 1988. Pp.332.

Marie Seurat, Les Corbeaux d'Alep. Paris: GallimardlLieu Commun, 1988. Pp.191. 89 FF (paperback).

Roger Auque (in collaboration with Patrick Forestier), Un otage à. Beyrouth. Paris: Filipacchi, 1988. Pp.303. 89 FF (paperback).

Gilles Delafon, Beyrouth: Les soldats de l'Islam. Paris: Stock, 1989. Pp.254.98 FF (paperback).     

Introduction: Kawabata Yasunari in the twenty-first century

Abstract: This introduction argues that there is a need to engage in a fresh re-reading of Kawabata Yasunari. It proposes several possible approaches, including using Kawabata as a model for understanding processes of literary canonization, a rethinking of his reception around the globe during the Cold War period, and a historicization of his work in relation to the various censorship regimes that existed in twentieth-century Japan. It also provides brief summaries of the articles contained in this special issue.     

Titles of note

Laurence Martin and John Roper (ed.), Towards a Common Defence Policy, Paris: Western European Union Institute for Security Studies, 1995, vii + 155pp.,

Jeffrey Simon, Central European Civil‐Military Relations and European Expansion, McNair Paper 39 Washington, DC: National Defense University Institute for National Strategic Studies, 1995, 157pp.     

Book reviews

Susan Eisenhower (ed.), NATO at Fifty: Perspectives on the Future of the Atlantic Alliance. Washington, DC: Center for Political and Strategic Studies, 1999. Pp.242, endnotes, no index. $22. ISBN 0–9670233–0‐0.

W. R. Smyser, From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle over Germany. New York: St Martin's Press, 1999. Pp.496, 6pp. illus., index. $29.95. ISBN 0–3120–6605–8.

Jean Yves Carlen, Steve Duchêne and Joël Ehrhart, Ibrahim Rugova: Le frêle colosse du Kosovo [Ibrahim Rugova: The Frail Colossus of Kosovo]. Paris: Desclée de Brouwer, 1999. Pp.149, no index. FF78. ISBN 2–220–04392–4.

Gabriel Gorodetsky, Grand Delusion: Stalin and the German Invasion of Russia. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999. Pp.424, notes, bibliog., index. $29.95. ISBN 0–300–07792–0.     

Book reviews and notes

Hegemony through Restraint

After Victory : Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars / G. John Ikenberry. ‐ Princeton and Oxford : Princeton University Press, c2001. ‐ xvi, 293 p. ‐ (Princeton studies in international history and politics). ‐ ISBN 0–691–05091–0 (pbk)

Italy's Hobbled Search for a Better Place in the Sun

Fra Casa Bianca e Botteghe Oscure : fatti e retroscena di una stagione alla Farnesina / Lamberto Dini; intervista di Maurizio Molinari. ‐ Milano : Guerini e Associati, C2001. ‐ 139 p. ‐ ISBN 88–8335–185–1     

No translator is an island: the changing dynamics of Murakami Haruki translations around the world

Abstract

Tim Parks has included Haruki Murakami among the group of authors writing ‘dull global novels’, a perception that is in part the result of an exclusive focus on English-language translations of Murakami. By turning attention to translations in other languages, this essay reveals a more nuanced and complex picture, showing that depending on where and by whom he is translated, Murakami in fact emerges differently than in English, and arguing that his writing is perhaps not so ‘dull’, after all. After briefly describing the history of Murakami translations in North America, the essay examines the history of translations in East Asia, using the example of greater China, where the two main translators, Lai Ming Chu (Taiwan) and Lin Shaohua (China), produce strikingly different versions of his writing. The essay then goes on to trace the main patterns of Murakami translation in Europe and into some Middle Eastern languages and Persian. In Europe there is a gradual shift away from indirect translations through English toward direct translations from the Japanese, and a greater degree of collaboration among translators. The essay analyzes the effects of these changes, offering a few examples from Murakami’s latest novels.     

Books notes∗

AA. VV., Cycle de conferences sur le développement economique, 371 OCDE, Paris, 1961, pp. 138, F. 25.

AA. VV., Droit communautaire et droit national, Community law and national law, De Tempel, Tempelhof, Bruges, 1965, pp. 400, n.p.g.

AA. VV., Fiscal Harmonization in Common Markets, Columbia University Press, New York, 1962, 2 voll., pp. 1.092.

Andreis Mario, L'Africa e la Comunità Economica Europea, Einaudi, Torino, 1967, pp. 374, Lit. 3.000.

AA. VV., La Germania antinazista (R.D.T.), La Nuova Italia, Roma, 1967, pp. 250, Lit. 3.000.

Angiolini Alfredo, Socialismo e socialisti in Italia, Editori riuniti, Roma, 1966, pp. 416, ed. fuori comm.

Baade H. C. Fritz, Exportations et recettes invisibles en Turquie, OCDE, Paris, 1961, pp. 134, n.p.g.

Calogero La Malfa Luisa, Ceccarini Ennio (A cura di), Contra la proliferazione Internationale, Edizioni della Voce, Roma, 1967, 373 pp. 297, Lit. 1.500.

Banca D'italia, Assemblea generale ordinaria dei partecipanti, anno 1966, Roma, 1967, 2 voll., pp. 543, n.p.g.

Del Bo Dino, Verso un nuovo assolutismo?, Vallecchi editore, Firenze, 1967, pp. 149, Lit. 1.800.

Department of Information of South Africa (Published by the), Ethiopia and Liberia Versus South Africa, Pretoria, 1966, pp. 306, n.p.g.

Di Fabio Marcello, L'acquisto immobiliare dello straniero, Edizioni Porziuncola, Assisi, 1967, pp. 253, n.p.g.

Dinerstein S. Herbert, Soviet Policy in Latin America, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, n.p.g.

Hayek Friedrich A., L'abuso della ragione, Vallecchi, Firenze, 1967, pp. 255, Lit. 1.000.

Hayward Max. (Translated and edited by) On Trial, The Soviet State versus “Abram Tertz” and “'Nikolai Arzhak”, Harper &; Row, New York, 1966, pp. 176, $ 4.95.

Inter‐American Development Bank, Proceedings. Seventh Meeting of the Board of Governors, Mexico, D.F., 1966, pp. 198, n.p.g. 375

Ionescu Ghita, L'avenir politique de l'Europe orientate, Futuribles Sedeis, Paris, 1967, pp. 372, F. 25.

Kindleberger Charles P., Lo sviluppo economico, Etas/Compass, Milano, 1967, pp. 519, Lit. 8.000.

Kolkowicz Roman, Soviet Party‐Military Relations: Contained Conflict, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 48, n.p.g.

Kolkowicz Roman, The Red “Hawkes” on the Rationality of Nuclear War, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, pp. 64, n.p.g.

Kolkowicz Roman, The Soviet Military and the Communist Party, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1967, pp. 349, $ 9.

Koppe Karlheinz, Das grüne E setzt sich durch, 20 Jahre Europa Union Deutschland 1946–1966, Europa Union Verlag, Köln, 1967, pp. 182, n.p.g.

Kuby Heinz, Défi a l'Europe, Éditions du Seuil, Collections esprit “Frontière ouverte”, Paris, 1967, pp. 346, n.p.g.

Kux Ernst, Dall'ongaro Giuseppe, Crisi nel Sud‐est asiatico, Ugo Bozzi Editore, Roma, 1967, pp. 273, Lit. 3.000.

La Palombara Joseph, Clientela e parentela, Studio sui gruppi d'in‐teresse in Italia, Edizioni di Comunità, Milano, 1967, pp. 391, Lit. 3.500.

Mannucci Cesare, La società di massa, Saggi di cultura contemporanei, Edizioni di Comunità, Milano, 1967, pp. 240, Lit. 2.000.

Mark Max, Beyond Sovereignty, Public Affairs Press, Washington, 1965, pp. 159, n.p.g.

Mcdougall Duncan M., Dernburg Thomas E., Macroeconomia, Etas/Compass, Milano, 1967, pp. 447, n.p.g.

Mendershausen Horst, Atlantica, Europa, Germania, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 63, n.p.g.

Menges Constantine C., Military Aspects of International Relations in the Developing Areas, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 378 1966, pp. 89, n.p.g.

Nichols R. T., The Common Market and European Unification, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1965, pp. 106, n.p.g.

Nobaaecourt Jacques, Une Histoire politique de l'armée. De Pétain à Pétain, 1919–1942, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1967, pp. 328, n.p.g.

Ocde, Les moyens financiers mis à disposition de pays moins développés, 1956–1963, Paris, 1964, pp. 139, F. 10.

Ohlin Goran, Réévaluation des politiques d'aide à l'étranger, OCDE, Paris, 1966, p. 112, n.p.g.

Pike Douglas, Viet Cong. The Organization and Techniques of the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam, The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1966, pp. 474, $ 8.95.

Pirker Theo (Herausgegeben von), Die Moskauer Schauprozesse, 1936–1938, Deutscherr Taschenbuch Verkg, München, 1963, pp. 278, DM. 2,50.

Pirker Theo (Herausgegeben von), Utopie und Mythos der Weltre‐volution Zur Geschichte der Komintern, 1920–1940, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, München, 1964, pp. 296, n.p.g.

Planchais Jean, Une histoire politique de l'armée. De De Gaulle a De Gaulle, 1940–1967, Éditions du Seuil, Paris, 1967, pp. 376, n.p.g.

Prandi Alfonso, Religiosità e cultura nel ‘700 italiano, Il Mulino, Bologna, 1966, pp. 435, Lit. 5.000.

Rasch Harold, Die Bundesrepubtik und Osteuropa, Pahl‐Rugenstein Verlag, Köln, 1965, pp. 150, n.p.g.

Robinson Thomas W., A National Interest Analysis of Sino‐Soviet Relations, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 40, n.p.g.

Salisbury Harrison E., L'orbita della Cina, Bompiani, Milano, 1967, pp. 216, Lit. 1.500.

Schurmann, Scott, Zelnik?, La politica dell'escalation nel Vietnam, Il Saggiatore, Milano, 1967, pp. 159, Lit. 1.400.

Speier Hans, Germany, The Continuing Challenge, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 36, n.p.g.

Trager N. Frank, Why Viet Nam, Praeger, New York, 1966, pp. 216, $ 4,95.

Ufficio Stampa Delle Acli (a cura dell'), Lo scandalo delle Acli. I commenti della stampa al X Congresso Nazionale, Roma, 1967, pp. 214, n.p.g.

United Nations, The United Nations and Disarmament, 1945–1965, New York, pp. 232, n.p.g.

Weinstein Ellen K., The Soviets Try, Try Again. The Soviet Economy and the “New Reforms”, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 11, n.p.g.

Wolfe Thomas W., The Evolving Nature of the Warsaw Pact, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1965, pp. 28, n.p.g.

Wolfe Thomas W., Soviet Military Power and European Security, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 42, n.p.g.

Wolfe Thomas W., The Soviet Union and Arms Control, The Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, 1966, pp. 40, n.p.g.

Van B. Cleveland Harold, The Atlantic Idea and Its European Rivals, McGraw‐Hill, New York, 1966, pp. 170, n.p.g.     

G. Johnson (Ed.) (2010). Peacemaking,Peacemakers and Diplomacy, 1880–1939. Essays in Honour of Professor Alan Sharp

He [Wilson] was more than just an idealist: he was the personification of the heritage of idealism of the American people. He brought spiritual concepts to the peace table. He was a born crusader.

Herbert Hoover

¹ 1 Herbert Hoover, The Ordeal of Woodrow Wilson (rev. ed. Baltimore, 1992) ix.

The issue of the Japanese plea for race equality at the Paris Peace Conference is generally seen as a secondary issue for American delegates. Most accounts see Wilson as being bullied into rejecting the proposal by the Dominion delegates — most notably Australia’s Billy Hughes. Analyzing his views on race and its intricate connection with immigration and examining his own and his advisers response to political allies and opponents at home and in Paris over these issues, this piece will argue that Wilson responded as much to domestic pressures as external forces in his eventual compromise with the Japanese in Paris.     

What really happened at Paris?

Lloyd E. Ambrosius, Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. £27.50.

British Documents on Foreign Affairs: Reports and Papers from The Foreign Office Confidential Print (General Editors K. Bourne and D. Cameron Watt). Part II. From the First to the Second World War. Series I. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 (ed.) M. Dockrill, Vols. 1–7. University Publications of America, 1989. $1050 (14 vols).

Bruce Kent, The Spoils of War. The Politics, Economics and Diplomacy of Reparations 1918–1932, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989. £40.

F.S. Northedge, The League of Nations: Its Life and Times 1920–1946, Leicester: Leicester University Press, paperback edition, 1988, £12.95.

Klaus Schwabe, Woodrow Wilson, Revolutionary Germany, and Peace‐making, 1918–1919: Missionary Diplomacy and the Realities of Power. Translated from the German by Rita and Robert Kimber, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985. $40.

Arthur Walworth, Wilson and His Peacemakers: American Diplomacy at the Paris Peace Conference, 1919, New York: Norton, 1986 £24.75.     

Millenarian aspects of ‘white supremacist’ movements

Since the mid‐1980s, press accounts have widely reported the activities of a new variety of radical right‐wing groups often characterized as ‘white supremacist’. Among groups to which the label has been attached are Aryan Nations, The Order, Posse Comitatus, and The Covenant, Sword and Arm of the Lord. These groups share a belief system made up of five elements: (1) ‘Identity’ theology, which asserts that whites of Western European extraction are direct descendants of the Biblical tribes of Israel; (2) a doctrine of racial superiority, which places ‘Aryans’ at the summit of a four‐race hierarchy; (3) belief in a world Jewish conspiracy; (4) admiration for Nazism, together with acceptance of ‘Holocaust revisionism'; and (5) a millenarian view of history, emphasizing the imminence of the ‘last days’. Such organizations typically draw from this belief system implications directly relevant to the study of violence: (1) the desirability of withdrawing into self‐sufficient, often paramilitary, communal groups maintaining minimal contact with outsiders; and/or (2) seeking direct confrontation with political authority in the form of terrorism and guerrilla warfare (for example, The Order's crime wave in 1983–84).     

Inxeba (The Wound): Sexual,Gender, Cultural and Religious Traumata on the African Screen

Abstract

This article is divided into two distinct parts. The first part contextualises John Trengove’s internationally renowned, award-winning, feature-length isiXhosa film, Inxeba. The second part of the article is an interview with Batana Vundla, conducted by Mark Kirby-Hirst (Film Theory and Visual Discourse Subject Manager at The Open Window), held in mid-2018, shortly after the High Court’s decision was made public regarding the final classification of Inxeba. The interview ranges from Batana Vundla’s history in the South African film and television industries, to the production processes behind the scenes of the film and concludes with a focus on the nuanced manner through which the film often broaches a wide variety of physical and psychic traumata.     

The artist as a medium and the artwork as metaphor in Murakami Haruki’s fiction

Abstract

In many of Murakami Haruki’s works, the protagonist is in a profession close to the world of literature, although usually not exactly a writer. In their role as translators, advertising copywriters, journalists, or editors, Murakami’s protagonists are invested with the task of rearranging fragments of reality into narrative or artistic form, and/or of transmitting a message. This process is emotionally charged, often involving a supernatural dimension. While the process of reconstructing a narrative is largely unconscious, the narrator’s choice to act in this capacity is deliberate, and is presented as a way of fulfilling his responsibility towards others. I read this element as an expression of Murakami’s vision of the role of a writer in society. The figure of the artist-narrator takes an interesting form in Kishidanchō-Goroshi (Killing Commendatore, 2017), where the protagonist, a visual artist specialising in realistic portraits, decides to pursue a more creative approach to painting that leads him to a series of supernatural adventures. Through a close reading of the novel, this article investigates how Murakami’s portrayal of the artist as a shaman-like figure functions like a metaphor for the role of the literary author as a catalyst that enables people to connect with their inner self and with each other.     

Racial appropriation in white expatriate South African discourses: Reading race on social club websites

Abstract

In South Africa the African moral philosophy ubuntuism is periodically raised as a framework for African normative media theory. At this stage, the ubuntu discourse cannot be described as a focused effort to develop a comprehensive theory on the basis of which media performance could be measured from ‘an African perspective’. It should rather be seen as an intellectual quest to rediscover and re-establish idealised values of traditional African culture(s) and traditional African communities. Yet, given South Africa's history of apartheid in which Christian nationalism was misused as a moral philosophy to mobilise a patriotic media in the service of volk (nationhood) and vaderland (fatherland), it is not too early to ask critical questions about ubuntuism as a possible framework for normative media theory. Such questioning is the purpose of this article. Against the background of postmodern and postcolonial perspectives on normative theory, questions related to the following are raised: the expediency of ubuntuism in the context of changed African cultural values, the distinctiveness of ubuntuism as an African moral philosophy, the vulnerability of moral philosophy to political misuse, ubuntuism in the context of the future of normative theory in a globalised world and changed media environment, and the implications of ubuntuism for journalism practice. It is concluded that ubuntuism may pose a threat to freedom of expression. Given the nature of contemporary South African society and its media system, the postmodern emphasis on diversity and pluralism as the cornerstone of future normative theory, is supported.     

Who is (South) African? A re-reading of Thabo Mbeki's ‘I am an African’ speech in the context of the banned (later unbanned) Nando's ‘diversity’ television commercial

Abstract

In 2012 flame-grilled chicken company, Nando's, released a 52-second advert showing people of various races and ethnicities vaporising into thin air, one after the other, leaving a lone San Bushman wearing a xai who declares: ‘I'm not going anywhere. You f*#@ng found us here.’ Broadcasters SABC, DStv and etv initially banned the advert, citing fears of a xenophobic backlash. In 1996, former South African president, Thabo Mbeki, who was deputy president at the time, delivered what has become known as the ‘I am an African’ speech at the adoption of the South Africa Constitution Bill. In the speech Mbeki appears to codify ‘Africanness’ into a consciousness not just of history, but a shared history. The conceptual reach of his speech seems to imply that everyone who may share South Africa's history is somehow South African and African. This article argues that the Mbeki speech and the Nando's advert, taken together, draw attention to the simultaneous richness and poverty of citizenship in South Africa, and the potential benefits and contradictions of claiming citizenship in the sense preferred by the two texts. The context is supplied by a sampling of 22 randomly selected online comments centering on the censored advert.     

BOOK ANNOUNCEMENTS … BOEKAANKONDIGINGS

SUMMARY

• In this article a number of general principles and practical tasks awaiting South African publishers are discussed by Andries Walter Oliphant, editor of Staffrider. Some of the points discussed are:

• the need for all South African publishers to underwrite non-racist democratic values;

• the need for South African publishers to advocate and defend the right of the reading public to have access to all published material and information;

• the need for publishers to counter the history of injustice, ignorance, racial prejudice and oppression by exposing and criticising any manifestation of it in society, the state and the media; and

• to give space to subordinate classes, such as workers and gender groups, to articulate their interests and conceptions of what freedom and social justice might mean to them.