2002 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Changes in the Ideas of "English Literature" and "American Literature" Perceived in the 20th-Century Literature in the English Language
| Project/Area Number |
12410119
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
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| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
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Principal Investigator |
SHIBATA Motoyuki The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Associate Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 助教授 (90170901)
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
TAKAHASHI Kazuhisa The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10108102)
HIRAISHI Takaki The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10133323)
G.E.H Hughes The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, guest professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 客員教授 (10281700)
OHASHI Yoichi The University of Tokyo Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (20126014)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2000 – 2002
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| Keywords | Literature in the English Language / English Literature / American Literature |
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| Research Abstract |
Literature in the English language has become even more diverse since this project started. It is obvious that the conventional terms "English literature" and "American literature, " if they are to be used at all today, are no longer restricted to any particular ethnic group. The importance of so-called minority literature in the twentieth century cannot be overestimated. Contemporary literature in the English language would be simply unthinkable if we omitted non-Anglo-Saxon writers such as Salman Rushdie, Kazuo Ishiguro, Hanif Kureishi, Jhumpa Lahiri.
The presence of these ethnic authors have made not only contemporary literature but literature in the past look different changes in the present also change the past. This often occurs when minority authors discuss literature in the past from their own viewpoint or when they creatively appropriate the past, canonical works.
In a literary work that focuses on the fate of a minority, it is often the case that the values of the ethnic group to which the author belongs are affirmed, and the mainstream white culture becomes the "enemy" : diversity, in that case, simply means nationalism in miniature. In more creative cases, however, writers can assume a more complex viewpoint as Richard Powers, an Anglo-Saxon American novelist, does in his recent work in which he delineates the fate of two brothers whose father is Jewish and mother is African-American growing up in the mid-20th century America.
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