| NOTA |
(★)(Translated by Sammy I. Tsunematsu／ Titulo original : 私の個人主義、文芸の哲学／ Published here for the first time in English,´My Individualism´ and ´The Philosophical Foundations of Literature,´ essays which originated as lectures, explore issues close to Soseki´s heart : the philosophical and cultural significance of isolation, belonging and identity associated with rapid technological, industrial and cultural change. Set against the background of the Meiji era, in which Soseki believed modern man was dislocated from Japan´s past as well as its future, he defines the role of art and the artist in light of the loneliness and individualism of the modern world.／ True to self-conscious style, each essay includes individual biographical anecdotes, inviting their allegorical reading as stories about the fate of Japan. In ´My Individualism,´ Soseki gives a rare account of his stay in London from the perspective of twelve years after his return, allowing us to see the profound shift in his thinking about literature that occurred during this time. In ´The Philosophical Foundations of Literature,´ we find one of Soseki´s principal attempts to provide a cross-cultural framework for the interpretation of literature. Together, the essays reveal Soseki´s attempts to create a theory of literature that is characteristically Japanese. In an Introduction to the two essays, Dr. Inger Brodey sensitively explores the crises in Soseki´s own life that led to his powerful sense of dislocation and to his particular style of writing, and then masterfully takes the reader through the complexities of the two essays.／ ◆Soseki Natsume (1867-1916) is widely considered the foremost novelist of the Meiji period (1868-1914). After graduating from Tokyo Imperial University in 1893, Soseki taught high school before spending two years in England on a Japanese government scholarship. He returned to lecture in English literature at the university. Numerous nervous disorders forced him to give up teaching in 1908 and he became a full-time writer for the Asahi newspaper. In addition to fourteen novels, Soseki wrote haiku, poems in the Chinese style, academic papers on literary theory, essays, autobiographical sketches and fairy tales.／ Sammy I. Tsunematsu is founder and curator of the Soseki Museum in London, and the translator of several of Soseki´s works. He has also researched and published widely on the Japanese artist Yoshio Markino, who was a contemporary of Soseki´s living in London at the beginning of the twentieth century. Tsunematsu has lived in Surrey, England, for thirty years.) |
BASE de DATOS, Biblioteca del Centro Cultural de la Embajada de Japon
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