| NOTA |
(★)(Translated by E. Dale Saunders)(Titulo original : 燃えつきた地図 [Moetsukita Chizu, 1967]／ Told in the form, and with the suspense of a mystery novel, ´The Ruined Map´ is a melodrama of the mind, its thriller-like excitement allied to a profound mythic quality that has placed Kobo Abe in the forefront of the world´s avant-garde novelists. The central character is a detective --a hunter-- searching for a missing person in the vast desert of the modern city. The persuit, violent and nightmarish, leads deeper and deeper into the underworld of Tokyo, through shady commercial enterprises to back-alley nude shows, gangs of outlaw ´gypsy´ cab drivers, hoodlums preying on junkies and homosexuals, businessmen whose business is corruption and death. As the hunt quickens, the professional disciplines that bind the detective to the real world paradoxically demand that he ´become´ the man he seeks. He has no choice but to think, act, and feel as he imagines his quarry must. Gradually, he finds his own identity, personality, and map of his once familiar world and self blurring with that of the lost man. In the novel, Abe brilliantly dramatizes the ambiguity and flux of individual identity in the rushing, directionless, packed crowds of contemporary life.／ ◆Kobo Abe [1924-1993] was born in Tokyo but spent his childhood in Manchuria, where his father was a doctor on the staff of a medical college. Although Abe obtained a medical degree from Tokyo University in 1948, he never practiced medicine, and instead published his first book,´The Road Sign at the End of the Street´, in that same year. He was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize in 1951 for his novel ´The Crime of Mr. S. Karuma´, and in 1960 the Yomiuri Prize for his novel ´The Woman in the Dunes´. In addition to writing, Abe directed his own theater company in Tokyo, producing many avant-garde works, including ´Friends[1967]´ and ´The Suitcase [1973]´.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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