Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit

Japanese literature is a continent in itself - conceivably diverse and multivocal, but at the same time closely networked with world literature. Two Nobel Prize winners, Yasunari Kawabata (1968) and Kenzaburo Oe (1994), Yukio Mishima, world-famous as a scandalous author, the erotic master Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, the 'Japanese Kafka' Kobo Abe and Yasushi Inoue, who was the most widely read author in Germany until the 1980s, defined the image of contemporary Japanese literature for decades. Then the 'global player' Haruki Murakami came on the scene. And alongside him, the landscape of translated titles from Japan became ever more colourful: Above all through the large group of female authors who, from the 1950s to the present day, have cultivated the field critically and boldly, wittily and experimentally, conscious of tradition and with global literary aspirations. Hiromi Kawakami, Yoko Ogawa, Miri Yu and Hiromi Ito are exemplary in this respect. Two of them, Ito and Kawakami, are honoured in this volume for the first time in German with a substantial essay. The selected volume presents classics of post-war literature with a worldwide impact right up to the present day. With articles on: Kobo Abe, Hiromi Ito, Yasunari Kawabata, Hiromi Kawakami, Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Kenzaburo Oe, Yoko Ogawa, Jun'ichiro Tanizaki, Miri Yu.