A theoretical reexamination of the concept of the ¿tragic¿ combined with detailed analyses of Japanese literary texts. Inspired by Western critical theory, the author unveils a rich tradition of tragic literature in Japan that has registered the unbridgeable gap between universal ideals and social values at a historical moment.

Kinya Nishi is a professor of aesthetics and intellectual history at Konan University, Japan. He has published books and articles exploring the discursive formation of cultural tradition in the context of modern Japan. He has held visiting research positions at the University of Sussex and Queen Mary, University of London.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface

Part One: The Historical Development of the Tragic in Japanese Literature

1. Approaching the Idea of Tragedy in the Non-West                                                    

2. Tragic Dramaturgy in Classical Japanese Theater

a.) Zeami
b.) Chikamatsu Monzaemon

3. Tragic Individualism in Modern Japanese Fiction

a.) Natsume S¿seki
b.) ¿e Kenzabur¿

Part Two: The Dialectics of Nature in Japanese Intellectual History

4. The Dilemma of Multicultural Aesthetics

5. Japanese Modernity and the Cultural Configuration of Nature

a.) Naturalism and National Identity
b.) From Protest to Conformism
c.) The Return of the Mother in Postwar Criticism

Part Three: Social Crisis and Literary Form

6. Matsuo Bash¿¿s Realism

7. Hiroshima and the Poetics of Death

8. Narrative after Fukushima

Bibliography
Index