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()(£Ëà°C, Translated by Janine Beichman)(Titulo original : Natsu no Owari [ÄÌIè, 1962]^@Through this novella -The End of Summer- and short story -The Pheasant- we hear the clear voice of a woman freeing herself from the chains of conventional Japanese society. From an untrammelled existence as the lover of two men, one married, the protagonist of LThe End of SummerL moves toward a kind of freedom which literally means having nothing left to lose. The consequences of living outside the well-trodden paths of life are harsh in Japan, and it takes a special kind of courage, fatalism even, for Tomoko of LThe End of SummerL to persist in her headlong search for self-knowledge and peace.^@LThe End of SummerL belongs to that genre of Japanese literature called LI-novelsL-intensely introspective writing concentrating on the inner resonances of mundane experience. Setouchi experiments with this form, attempting a montage effect which ultimately results in the readerLs complete identification with the protagonist. The concluding passages of LThe End of SummerL contain moving intimations of the decision the author made, ten years after its publication, to become a Buddhist nun.^@LThe PheasantL, also using material from SetouchiLs life, provides unexpected and shocking background to the novella. It is a painful evocation of a motherLs anguish, half-buried but never forgotten, at being parted from her child. The title refers to the traditional Japanese belief that the pheasant is an especially affectionate bird towards its young ; its piercing cry is said to be the birdLs call for its child, and the storyLs finale draws a brutal parallel between the mythic pain of the pheasant and that of a human mother.^@These stories present a portrait of a woman determined to cast off the shackles of the past -both her own past and the confining traditions of her culture.^@Harumi Setouchi was born in Tokushima Prefecture, Shikoku, in 1922. She is a graduate of Tokyo Christian WomenLs University. Ms. Setouchi started to write actively in the late 1950Ls, establishing her name with a biography of the pioneer feminist author Toshiko Tamura. She continued to write biographies of contemporary political and literary feminists, and also published semiautobiographical novels. In 1973 she became a Buddhist nun, continuing, nonetheless, to publish novels.^@Among Ms. SetouchiLs major works are LThe End of Summer [1962]L, and LKanoko ryoran [serialized 1962-64, published in book form in 1971]L, a biography of contemporary woman writer Kanoko Okamoto.) |
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