Yasunarı Kawabata And Neo-Sensualism In Japanese Literature On The Silk Road

Year 2019, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 213 - 225, 01.11.2019

Svetlana Grubor

Abstract

The early twenties in Japanese literature and art were marked by the rapid development of various modernist trends. There were many different literary movements in those years, but among them all, two groups of modernist views stood out: "new art" and the most interesting phenomenon in Japanese modernist literature of the time, so-called "neo-sensualism" known as "The Literature of Feelings". From the point of view of Japanese neo-sensualists, literature should not be merely a copy of objective reality; in their opinion, literature is always the fruit of subjective impressions, feelings, author’s doubts. One of the most significant representatives of neo-sensualism is Yasunari Kawabata, who has taken a special place in this group of young artists. Unlike the others, he did not abandon national artistic traditions, classical ideas, and images about beauty. Neo-sensualists have much in common with traditional Japanese aesthetics. The characteristics of neosensualism, the freshness and expressiveness of metaphors, the focus on the nuances of human feelings and emotions are the hallmarks of classical Japanese literature, especially poetry, but they were proclaimed innovative at that time. This was the reason why Kawabata's novella "The Dancing Girl of Izu" published in 1926 was considered a typical work of neo-sensualism. A story of first love, in which the word "love" was never mentioned, but coloured by subtle nuances of feelings of joy, confusion, restlessness, pain, gratitude. Created in the tradition of classical Japanese literature, it was the first significant work in which the distinctive features of the artist Kawabata’s style – honesty, gentleness, delicacy and serenity – are manifested

Keywords

Japanese literature, modernist trends, neo-sensualism, Yasunari

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