Questions About Toddler-Hunting & Other Stories

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Is there child or animal abuse in this book? What does "Toddler-Hunting" refer to?

MISS LC To reply to your questions in reverse order: 1) 'Toddler Hunting' is the title story. That is, the title of one of the stories in this book--and the s…moreTo reply to your questions in reverse order: 1) 'Toddler Hunting' is the title story. That is, the title of one of the stories in this book--and the story that first got Taeko Kono noticed in the wider literary world, published in the early 1960s. It is probably her most shocking story--the stories get much less violent towards the end of the book. In Japanese the title is 'yōji gari': yōji refers to 'small children', where as 'toddler' really refers to children up to say three. In Kono's story the child/children is/are somewhat older. In French this story has been translated as 'La chasse à l'enfant', and in German 'Knabenjagd': each has slightly different nuances. 'Toddler' is slightly too young an age frame really for 'yoji', but the publisher in English wanted to avoid a title like 'Child Hunt', though on reflection, 'Child Hunt' might have been better: the irony might have been clearer. 2) There is no animal abuse in Kono's fiction. 3) The Afterword in the book, written by the translator, sets Kono's themes, particularly her initial preoccupation with sadomasochism, in context. Taeko Kono deals with difficult themes, often exposing the violence and suppression and 'abuse' that exists within the family system (the 'family fiction'), the silencing of people who do not fit in, and she questions the boundaries between seen and unseen violence, between what is considered healthy and what is considered unhealthy. Kono does not write to titillate but to unsettle. Many Goodreads reviewers have identified the feminism and oppositionality in her writing. That said, squeamish readers will probably not enjoy this book.(less)

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