
In Light of Shadows
More Gothic Tales by Izumi Kyoka
Izumi Kyoka(Author)
University of Hawai'i Press
Published on 1. November 2004
Book
Hardback
208 pages
978-0-8248-2824-0 (ISBN)
Description
In Light of Shadows is the long-awaited second volume of short fiction by the Meiji-Taisho writer Izumi Kyoka. It includes the famous novella Uta andon (A story by lantern light), the bizarre, antipsychological story ""Mayu kakushi no rei"" (A quiet obsession), and Kyoka's hauntingly erotic final work, ""Rukoshinso"" (The heartvine), as well as critical discussions of each of these three tales. Translator Charles Inouye places Kyoka's ""literature of shadows"" (kage no bungaku) within a worldwide gothic tradition even as he refines its Japanese context. Underscoring Kyoka's relevance for a contemporary international audience, Inouye adjusts Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's evaluation of Kyoka as the most Japanese of authors by demonstrating how the writer's paradigm of the suffering heroine can be linked to his exposure to Christianity, to a beautiful American woman, and to the aesthetic of blood sacrifice. In Light of Shadows masterfully conveys the magical allusiveness and eliptical style of this extraordinary writer, who Mishima Yukio called ""the only genius of modern Japanese letters.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Honolulu, HI
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
3 illustrations,
Dimensions
Height: 207 mm
Width: 141 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
422 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8248-2824-0 (9780824828240)
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Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Charles Shiro Inouye is professor of Japanese and former dean of the Colleges for Undergraduate Education at Tufts University.