yasunari kawabata 1899-1972

7/29/2019 Yasunari Kawabata 1899-1972

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Snow Country KawabataYasunari


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14 June, 1988- 16 April,

1972Born in Osaka

Loss of close relatives

Tokyo ImperialUniversity, major inEnglish


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first Japanese novelist towin the Nobel Prize forLiterature -1968

He killed himself bygassing himself. -1972


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The Dancing Girl of Izu -1927

Snow Country -1948

The Sound of the Mountain- 1954

Thousand Cranes -1958

Japan the Beauty and Myself -1969


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YasunariKawabata (1899-1972) Kawabata lived over three eras (Meiji, Taisho,

Showa) :meaning Japanese emperor had changedthree times in his life period

MEIJI ERA (1868-1912)

Meiji-Revolution which occurred in the latter

half of the 19th century- led Japan to bemodern country

TAISHO ERA (1912-1925)

World War I begins in 1914

SHOWA ERA (1925-1989) A period of suffering- Economic depressed

spread

World War II begin in 1939 and end in 1945


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National Seclusion (1639-1869)

Over 200 years of long seclusionmarginalized Japan from other countries

Japanese own culture has developed

Kawabata developed a unique stylecombining elements of traditional andmodern literature


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Modernism was one of the literary movement in20th century

Kawabata was involved with European

modernism Kawabata saw:

Literature as Style

The writer as Introvert

Life as a rupture of expected continues and allhuman relations = ultimately substantial


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movie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-5vduERZAA


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Shimamura enjoys the affection withKomako, but never gets serious. Be attractedby Yoko somehow.

Komako Geisha. Hosts Shimamura, and fallsin love with him. Has a fiance, who dies in thestory.

Yoko a girl from Komakos town. A lover ofKomakos fiance.


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The Long Tunnel here is

metaphorically his life.

-if you keep going you will eventually get out ofthe tunnel, but how is he gonna face the worldafter the tunnel: the snow country.


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can be metaphorically

things he faces .

- The cold air(harsh world)

- A beautiful but slender and undependablegirls(Komako and Yoko) like snow

- Moments of momentary beauties

- His impassive and cold heart


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Here, it is white and laying under the night

sky.

It sounds like a lady sleeping in the darkness:Geisha, which is Komako.

Geisha always put Oshiroi on their face.


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Shimamura wants to enjoy his life in the Snow

Country. But there is always a signal stop.

-He has family back home

-Komako is Geisha

-He starts to like Yoko, too.


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Yokos face, bonfire in a mountain andsnowscape.

The fire of Komakos passion and the snow ofShimamuras lethargy.

Yoko falling down from the second floor of the

house caught on fire at the end of the story.


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Shimamura uses the word, Toro, which meansfools errand throughout the story.

Snow is like that. It melts and disappear. Veryhollow.

But there is something beautiful about it. Thisworld is a pile of fools errand. When the snow

piles it is beautiful, as the world is beautiful withthe pile of fools errand


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Shimamura apathetical, lethargy, leading anidle life, living out of his parents inheritance.Has wife and children. Minor writer.

*Identity issue Komako lost her husband, has a fiance who is

cheating on her and dies, and falls in love withShimamura when her fiance is still alive.

*Identity issue


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Love

-family friends partner

Toil for Shimamura and relief for Komako

-Shimamura is living out of his parentsinheritance. Never had hardship. -Komako

needs to sacrifice her body and soul to make aliving in her whole life. Never relieved.


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Trust

-betraying family and fiance

Self-Esteem

-Shimamura has nothing to boast. Komako has had the less-respected life.


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A lot of us suffer from the lack of testimonylike Shimamura(too ordinal life)

So many girls try to find their identity in arelationship with guys.

We are selfish, but never know how to loveourselves.

A lot of us do not know or even do not thinkabout why we are living.


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Lippit, Seiji M. Topographies of Japanese

modernism. Columbia University Press,2002. Rosenthal, Lucy.The world treasury of love

stories. Oxford University Press,1995.

Petersen, Gwenn Boardman.The Moon in thewater : understanding Tanizaki, Kawabata, andMishima. University Press of Hawaii,1992.

Hibbett, Howard. Contemporary Japanese

literature : an anthology of fiction, film, andother writing since 1945. Knopf :1977.

Norton Anthology of World Literature, 2nd,

yasunari kawabata 1899-1972

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