Heidi Julavits’ Turning Japanese is an intriguing, almost mysterious narrative that takes advantage of the author’s impressive diction. Julavits’ expressive style explored the complex, conceptual theories she held while staying in Japan. In studying this essay, I have absorbed a different perspective and writing style, gained better understanding of analyzing text, and piqued an interest in the art of composing written works. Turning Japanese shines a light on the personal experience of an American in a land where the culture is much different from her own; it also tells of how Julavits coped and learned to love these differences. I found that this narrative used a style much more abstract than most writers’. Julavits uses compelling phrases such as “craving-cruller-gluttony-happiness”, which adds a layer of depth to writing as personal as hers. A portion of her writing also gets philosophical, as if the text had more meaning to the writer than the readers themselves. I have found that this interesting approach to writing only beckons to the audience, drawing them further in an attempt to understand more. …show more content…
In deciphering this narrative, one would have to see past her thinly-veiled surrealism to decipher the true meaning of her work. I found myself digging through Julavits’ diction in order to understand the main idea of her piece. When I’d finally understood the crux of her writing, it was as if I unlocked one of the “zen mysteries” Julavits had discussed in her writing piece. Analyzing Turning Japanese taught me that not all narratives were short, sweet, and to the point - some writers took artistic integrity and applied it to their own personal recounts, and that it was the readers’ job to fully
'Even with all the mental anguish and struggle, an elemental instinct bound us to this soil. Here we were born; here we wanted to live. We had tasted of its freedom and learned of its brave hopes for democracy. It was too late, much too late for us to turn back.' (Sone 124). This statement is key to understanding much of the novel, Nisei Daughter, written by Monica Sone. From one perspective, this novel is an autobiographical account of a Japanese American girl and the ways in which she constructed her own self-identity. On the other hand, the novel depicts the distinct differences and tension that formed between the Issei and Nisei generations. Moreover, it can be seen as an attempt to describe the confusion experienced by Japanese Americans torn between two cultures.
-Nara’s Buddhist temples were another result of cultural diffusion, Buddhist began in India in 500s B.C.E. about 1,000 years later, it came to Japan from China by way of Korea.
experience, because ‘she had the face of America’s enemy and would always have such a face’[5]. However, the Japanese are not merely victims and out of a sense of superiority, they choose to maintain. their detachment from American society. Hatsue’s influential mentor Mrs Shigemura has contempt for American culture and warns Hatsue to stay away from the ‘hakujin’[6].... ... middle of paper ...
Christopher Benfey’s work The Great Wave is a narrative driven by a collection of accounts, stories and curious coincidences tying together The Gilded Age of New England in particular with interactions and connections to the Japan of old and new. In the context of The Great Wave, Benfey's own personal journey to Japan at the age of sixteen should be understood. Embarking on this voyage to learn traditional writing, language and Judo, his story can also be seen as a not only a historical continuation, but also a personal precursor to the vignettes he discovers and presents to the reader.
into their own dialect. One example of how Japan was influenced culturally from the Diary of
Throughout history artists have used art as a means to reflect the on goings of the society surrounding them. Many times, novels serve as primary sources in the future for students to reflect on past history. Students can successfully use novels as a source of understanding past events. Different sentiments and points of views within novels serve as the information one may use to reflect on these events. Natsume Soseki’s novel Kokoro successfully encapsulates much of what has been discussed in class, parallels with the events in Japan at the time the novel takes place, and serves as a social commentary to describe these events in Japan at the time of the Mejeii Restoration and beyond. Therefore, Kokoro successfully serves as a primary source students may use to enable them to understand institutions like conflicting views Whites by the Japanese, the role of women, and the population’s analysis of the Emperor.
Reischauer, Edwin O., and Albert M. Craig. Japan, Tradition & Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Print.
“Until the seventeenth century, Japanese Literature was privileged property. …The diffusion of literacy …(and) the printed word… created for the first time in Japan the conditions necessary for that peculiarly modern phenomenon, celebrity” (Robert Lyons Danly, editor of The Narrow Road of the Interior written by Matsuo Basho; found in the Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition, Volume D). Celebrity is a loose term at times; it connotes fortune, flattery, and fleeting fame. The term, in this modern era especially, possesses an aura of inevitable transience and glamorized superficiality. Ironically, Matsuo Basho, (while writing in a period of his own newfound celebrity as a poet) places an obvious emphasis on the transience of life within his travel journal The Narrow Road of the Interior. This journal is wholly the recounting of expedition and ethos spanning a fifteen hundred mile feat, expressed in the form of a poetic memoir. It has been said that Basho’s emphasis on the Transient is directly related to his and much of his culture’s worldview of Zen Buddhism, which is renowned for its acknowledgement of the Transient as a tool for a more accurate picture of life and a higher achievement of enlightenment. Of course, in the realization that Basho does not appear to be unwaveringly religious, perhaps this reflection is not only correlative to Zen Buddhism, but also to his perspective on his newfound celebrity. Either way, Matsuo Basho is a profound lyricist who eloquently seeks to objectify and relay the concept of transience even in his own name.
Suzuki, Tomi. Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1996.
Though the dominance of Chinese culture and figures in Japanese literature has subsided, the influence it had on early Japanese works can still be observed today as authors still reference this affiliation and allude to the intermingling of the two cultures. From classical texts like The Tale of Genji to more modern volumes like Kin Kin Sensei and Thousand Arms of Goddess, Julienned, Japanese literature not only expanded on traditional Chinese kanji characters but also referenced specific figures and traditions that would come to be incorporated into the overall identity of Japan as a whole. Because of this interrelation between Chinese and Japanese literary works and culture, it is essential for readers to have a firm understanding in order to fully appreciate the works of either culture.
Shirane Haruo. et al. Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology 1600-1900. New York: Colombia University Press, 2002. Print.
Ohnuki-Tierney, Emiko. "The Ambivalent Self of the Contemporary Japanese." Cultural Anthropology 5.2 (1990): 197-216. Print.
The Heian period(794-1185), the so-called golden age of Japanese culture, produced some of the finest works of Japanese literature.1 The most well known work from this period, the Genji Monogatari, is considered to be the “oldest novel still recognized today as a major masterpiece.”2 It can also be said that the Genji Monogatari is proof of the ingenuity of the Japanese in assimilating Chinese culture and politics. As a monogatari, a style of narrative with poems interspersed within it, the characters and settings frequently allude to Chinese poems and stories. In addition to displaying the poetic prowess that the Japanese had attained by this time period, the Genji Monogatari also demonstrates how politics and gender ideals were adopted from the Chinese.
Western Washington University (2011). US / Japan culture comparison. Retrieved February 9, 2014, from www.wwu.edu/auap/english/gettinginvolved/CultureComparison.shtml
Japan is a large island off to the east of China it is a great country that has a rich culture. The Japanese religion is based off of two main beliefs, the belief in Shinto and Buddhism many Japanese people believe consider themselves both. The Japanese people were known to be around as early as 4,500 B.C. They have constructed their government style to a constitutional monarchy where they do in fact have an emperor, but he has limited power within the country. The main power of the country is held by the Prime Minister of Japan. Japan is made up of many islands that extend along the Pacific coast of Asia. The land area is made up of a lot of forest and mountainous area that cannot be used for agricultural, industrial or residential use. Japan also has one of the largest and growing economies in the world. They are growing every day and it is all because the people of Japan work very hard in order for their economy to flourish as it has.