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Endö Shüsaku: A Literature of Reconciliation
Endö Shüsaka is probably the most widely translated of all Japanese authors. In this first major study of Endö's works, Mark Williams moves the discussion on from the well-worn depictions of Endö as the 'Japanese Graham Greene', and places him in his own political and cultural context.
276 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 6, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
July 10, 2018
Was this a bit of a drudge? I might've treated myself a little bit after finishing this book, under the guise of getting fresh ice cream for my pregnant wife. I aimed for eleven pages a day, and some days I asked for extra grace. I stuck to it. I had lots of free time during work.
Williams argues that Endo's entire literary output is to produce a "literature of reconciliation," meaning that Endo sought to draw opposites in his stories together and unite them under an individual. Williams follows the early works of Endo like The Sea and Poison and White Man/Yellow Man to show how Endo's protagonists wrestled with psychological tensions (maybe cognitive dissonance?) brought about by external events which shake their confidence and understanding of the world, only to awkwardly unite these tensions at the end of his novels. In Endo's later works, however, like , Scandal, and Deep River the tensions turn inward as the protagonist wrestles with their Jungian shadow, but these protagonists end up accepting their "new normal" once they become more accepting of their conscious and unconscious selves, what Williams calls "individuation." Silence and The Samurai are kind of in between.
I found Williams' contextualizing of Endo helpful in determining where he fits within the background of Modern Japanese literature. He moves us beyond the usual "Endo is a Japanese Catholic author" yada-yada (probably said by some guy who just finished watching Silence aka me) and situates him with the post-war writers of the Daisan no shinjin group, who write autobiographical details into their novels from a first-person perspective. Of course, Endo doesn't fit perfectly in this box because he wrestles with Christian elements in his novels and he writes from multiple perspectives at once.
Williams argues that Endo's entire literary output is to produce a "literature of reconciliation," meaning that Endo sought to draw opposites in his stories together and unite them under an individual. Williams follows the early works of Endo like The Sea and Poison and White Man/Yellow Man to show how Endo's protagonists wrestled with psychological tensions (maybe cognitive dissonance?) brought about by external events which shake their confidence and understanding of the world, only to awkwardly unite these tensions at the end of his novels. In Endo's later works, however, like , Scandal, and Deep River the tensions turn inward as the protagonist wrestles with their Jungian shadow, but these protagonists end up accepting their "new normal" once they become more accepting of their conscious and unconscious selves, what Williams calls "individuation." Silence and The Samurai are kind of in between.
I found Williams' contextualizing of Endo helpful in determining where he fits within the background of Modern Japanese literature. He moves us beyond the usual "Endo is a Japanese Catholic author" yada-yada (probably said by some guy who just finished watching Silence aka me) and situates him with the post-war writers of the Daisan no shinjin group, who write autobiographical details into their novels from a first-person perspective. Of course, Endo doesn't fit perfectly in this box because he wrestles with Christian elements in his novels and he writes from multiple perspectives at once.
November 21, 2022
That was a fascinating read and I Learned a lot, esp the last chapter.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews