A Body Committing Suicide in Kenzaburō Ōe's “Seventeen”

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Other Title
  • 大江健三郎の「自殺」する肉体
  • 大江健三郎の「自殺」する肉体 : 「セヴンティーン」「政治少年死す」という投企
  • オオエケンサブロウ ノ 「 ジサツ 」 スル ニクタイ : 「 セヴンティーン 」 「 セイジ ショウネンシ ス 」 ト イウ トウキ
  • ――「セヴンティーン」「政治少年死す」という投企――

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Abstract

<p>In 1960 the Socialist Party leader Inejiro Asanuma was stabbed to death by Otoya Yamaguchi, seventeen-year-old right-wing student who later committed suicide in prison. So “Seventeen” and “Seiji-shōnen-shisu,” Kenzaburō Ōe's short stories published in 1961, are often said to be based on the assassination. But such a relation between fact and fiction seems to be to a great degree formed by the author's own comments on this case of murder. In short his political and philosophical discourses are confused with his literary ones. Indeed suicide in the stories doesn't directly reflect the fact, but it symbolically refers to a project to escape from the cul-de-sac of postwar Japan.</p>

Journal

  • Japanese Literature

    Japanese Literature 63 (9), 36-46, 2014-09-10

    Japanese Literature Association

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