|
The Drifting Cloud
is an 1887 Japanese novel by Shimei Futabatei. Published in three parts (with the last one in serialised form) between June 1887 and August 1889, it is usually being referred to as the first modern Japanese novel. Plot ;Part One The reader is introduced to friends and colleagues Bunzō and Noboru, who both work as low-ranking government officials in Tokyo. Bunzō has just lost his job for no apparent reason, startled because he considers himself to be more educated than the majority of the staff, while another colleague was fired for talking back to the supervisor. He returns to his home at his uncle Magobei's house, where he has been raised since the death of his father. The only other persons in the house are his aunt Omasa, Magobei's and Omasa's daughter Osei, and maid Onabe (Magobei is seldom at home due to his job, while their son is attending a boarding school). Osei, who is described as a volatile and superficial character, has just reached the age to get married. Bunzō ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Futabatei Shimei
was a Japanese writer, translator, and literary critic. His writings are in the realist style popular in the mid to late 19th century. His work '' The Drifting Cloud'' (''Ukigumo'', 1887) is widely regarded as Japan's first modern novel. Biography Futabatei was born Hasegawa Tatsunosuke in Edo (now Tokyo). After quitting his studies at the Russian language department at the Tokyo Foreign Language School in protest over administrative restructuring, Futabatei published the literary criticism ''Shōsetsu Sōron'' at the encouragement of the critic and author Tsubouchi Shōyō in 1886. Futabatei's first novel '' Ukigumo'' is often said to be unfinished, but its realist style strongly influenced fellow authors in his day. Futabatei was accomplished in Russian and translated the work of Ivan Turgenev and other Russian realists into Japanese. In 1902, he learned Esperanto in Russia. Returning to Japan in 1906, he published the first Japanese-Esperanto instruction book ''Sekaigo' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Literary Realism
Literary realism is a literary genre, part of the broader realism in arts, that attempts to represent subject-matter truthfully, avoiding speculative fiction and supernatural elements. It originated with the realist art movement that began with mid- nineteenth-century French literature (Stendhal) and Russian literature (Alexander Pushkin). Literary realism attempts to represent familiar things as they are. Realist authors chose to depict everyday and banal activities and experiences. Background Broadly defined as "the representation of reality", realism in the arts is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without artificiality and avoiding artistic conventions, as well as implausible, exotic and supernatural elements. Realism has been prevalent in the arts at many periods, and is in large part a matter of technique and training, and the avoidance of stylization. In the visual arts, illusionistic realism is the accurate depiction of lifeforms, perspective, and the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Novel
A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itself from the la, novella, a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ''novellus'', diminutive of ''novus'', meaning "new". Some novelists, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Ann Radcliffe, John Cowper Powys, preferred the term "romance" to describe their novels. According to Margaret Doody, the novel has "a continuous and comprehensive history of about two thousand years", with its origins in the Ancient Greek and Roman novel, in Chivalric romance, and in the tradition of the Italian renaissance novella.Margaret Anne Doody''The True Story of the Novel'' New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1996, rept. 1997, p. 1. Retrieved 25 April 2014. The ancient romance form was revived by Romanticism, especially the histori ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Modernist Literature
Literary modernism, or modernist literature, originated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and is characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional ways of writing, in both poetry and prose fiction writing. Modernism experimented with literary form and expression, as exemplified by Ezra Pound's maxim to "Make it new." This literary movement was driven by a conscious desire to overturn traditional modes of representation and express the new sensibilities of their time. The horrors of the First World War saw the prevailing assumptions about society reassessed, and much modernist writing engages with the technological advances and societal changes of modernity moving into the 20th century. Origins and precursors In the 1880s, increased attention was given to the idea that it was necessary to push aside previous norms entirely, instead of merely revising past knowledge in light of contemporary techniques. The theories of Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), and Ernst Mach (183 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tokyo
Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 million residents ; the city proper has a population of 13.99 million people. Located at the head of Tokyo Bay, the prefecture forms part of the Kantō region on the central coast of Honshu, Japan's largest island. Tokyo serves as Japan's economic center and is the seat of both the Japanese government and the Emperor of Japan. Originally a fishing village named Edo, the city became politically prominent in 1603, when it became the seat of the Tokugawa shogunate. By the mid-18th century, Edo was one of the most populous cities in the world with a population of over one million people. Following the Meiji Restoration of 1868, the imperial capital in Kyoto was moved to Edo, which was renamed "Tokyo" (). Tokyo was devastate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bunkyō
is a special ward located in Tokyo, Japan. Situated in the middle of the ward area, Bunkyō is a residential and educational center. Beginning in the Meiji period, literati like Natsume Sōseki, as well as scholars and politicians have lived there. Bunkyō is home to the Tokyo Dome, Judo's Kōdōkan, and the University of Tokyo's Hongo Campus. Bunkyō has a sister-city relationship with Kaiserslautern in the Rhineland-Palatinate of Germany. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Hongo and Koishikawa wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Bunkyo ward exhibits contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division. The Nezu and Sendagi neighborhoods in the ward's eastern corner is attached to the Shitamachi area in Ueno with more traditional Japanese atmosphere. On the other hand, the remaining areas of the ward typically represent Yamanote districts. As of May 1, 2015, the ward has a population of 217,743 (including abou ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tsubouchi Shōyō
__NoTOC__ was a Japanese author, critic, playwright, translator, editor, educator, and professor at Waseda University. He has been referred to as a seminal figure in Japanese drama. "Wetmore deals cleanly with Japanese theatre as part of the modernization project ..Wetmore notes some of the new attempts within the ''kabuki'' frame then takes us through the work of seminal figures like Osanai Kaoru, Tsbouchi Shōyo, and so on. Biography He was born ''Tsubouchi Yūzō'' (坪内 雄蔵), in Gifu prefecture. He also used the pen name ''Harunoya Oboro'' (春のや おぼろ). His book of criticism, ''Shōsetsu Shinzui'' (The Essence of the Novel), helped free novels and dramas from the low opinion that the Japanese had of such literature. Tsubouchi's writings on realism in literature influenced Masaoka Shiki's ideas about realism in haiku. Tsubouchi's novel, ''Tōsei Shosei Katagi'' (Portraits of Contemporary Students), was one of the earliest modern novels in Japan. His Kabuki ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ivan Goncharov
Ivan Alexandrovich Goncharov (, also ; rus, Ива́н Алекса́ндрович Гончаро́в, r=Iván Aleksándrovich Goncharóv, p=ɪˈvan ɐlʲɪkˈsandrəvʲɪdʑ ɡənʲtɕɪˈrof; – ) was a Russian novelist best known for his novels ''The Same Old Story'' (1847), ''Oblomov'' (1859), and '' The Precipice'' (1869, also translated as ''Malinovka Heights''). He also served in many official capacities, including the position of censor. Goncharov was born in Simbirsk into the family of a wealthy merchant; as a reward for his grandfather's military service, they were elevated to gentry status. He was educated at a boarding school, then the Moscow College of Commerce, and finally at Moscow State University. After graduating, he served for a short time in the office of the Governor of Simbirsk, before moving to Saint Petersburg where he worked as government translator and private tutor, while publishing poetry and fiction in private almanacs. Goncharov's first novel, ' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oblomov
''Oblomov'' ( ru , link=no, Обломов; ) is the second novel by Russian writer Ivan Goncharov, first published in 1859. Ilya Ilyich Oblomov is the central character of the novel, portrayed as the ultimate incarnation of the superfluous man, a symbolic character in 19th-century Russian literature. Oblomov is a young, generous nobleman who seems incapable of making important decisions or undertaking any significant actions. Throughout the novel he rarely leaves his room or bed. In the first 50 pages, he manages only to move from his bed to a chair. The book was considered a satire of Russian intelligentsia. The novel was popular when it came out, and some of its characters and devices have imprinted on Russian culture and language. Creation and publication Goncharov first thought of writing ''Oblomov'' in the mid-1840s, soon after publishing his first novel ''A Common Story.'' In 1849 he wrote "Episode from an Unfinished Novel: Oblomov's Dream", a short story that was pub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanpō (Japanese Government Gazette)
Kanpō (, literally "Official report") is the government gazette, official gazette of the Japanese government. Its official publication started in 1886, from National Printing Bureau of the Ministry of the Treasury, Ministry of Finance. Japan traditionally relied on the Kōsatsu, a wooden plaque placed at shukuba and other important places to let the public in general know the shogun's nationwide or daimyo's local proclamations. As the people's literacy rate improved and the modern nation emerged under the Meiji government, the Kōsatsu was abolished in 1873 and eventually replaced by the ''Kanpō'', the Japanese government gazette, now available on the Internet. See also *Public notice *Kōsatsu References External linksKanpo Internet Kanpo (National Printing Bureau)in JapaneseGovernment Publications Service Centers of Kanpo Ltd. in Japanese {{Authority control Government gazettes Newspapers published in Japan Mass media in Japan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
19th-century Japanese Novels
The 19th (nineteenth) century began on 1 January 1801 ( MDCCCI), and ended on 31 December 1900 ( MCM). The 19th century was the ninth century of the 2nd millennium. The 19th century was characterized by vast social upheaval. Slavery was abolished in much of Europe and the Americas. The First Industrial Revolution, though it began in the late 18th century, expanding beyond its British homeland for the first time during this century, particularly remaking the economies and societies of the Low Countries, the Rhineland, Northern Italy, and the Northeastern United States. A few decades later, the Second Industrial Revolution led to ever more massive urbanization and much higher levels of productivity, profit, and prosperity, a pattern that continued into the 20th century. The Islamic gunpowder empires fell into decline and European imperialism brought much of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and almost all of Africa under colonial rule. It was also marked by the collapse of the large S ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
