Divided Self: A Biography of Arishima Takeo

by Leith Morton

Arishima Takeo led one of the most dramatic lives of any modern Japanese writer. He is particularly engrossing because of his treatment of the psyche and sexuality; the linking of behaviour with sexual drives was undoubtedly his outstanding achievement and presaged much later Japanese writing. His struggles with his own sexuality, graphically revealed in his diary, provided the motive for his concern. Arishima's fiction, as yet mostly untranslated, is also drawn upon in this biography, and quoted passages never before available to English-speaking readers are included. Arishima's life provides many insights into bourgeois early 20th century Japanese society, illustrating the dilemma of the intellectual in an increasingly right wing society.

237 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988