2004 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Comparative Approaches to American Literature
| Project/Area Number |
15520159
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
ヨーロッパ語系文学
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| Research Institution | Tokyo University of Foreign Studies |
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Principal Investigator |
KATO Yuji Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Faculty of Foreign Studies, Senior Lecturer, 外国語学部, 講師 (60224549)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2003 – 2004
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| Keywords | comparative literature / American literature / Herman Melville / F.Scott Fitzgerald / Haruki Murakami / William Faulkner / critical history / literary theory |
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| Research Abstract |
In this study project, I proposed to study American literature through comparative approaches, taking into consideration historical contexts and theoretical developments in modern literary criticism. In the first year of the project, in 2004, I focused on Herman Melville and Japanese critical history of his works, and delineated the process in which Japanese pre-and post-World War II romantic literary discourses conflicted with the anti-romantic tendencies of Melville's works.
The first half of the second year of the project was dedicated to the analysis of the historical contexts of the Japanese 1970s and 80s, taking the appropriation of F.Scott Fitzgerald's works by Haruki Murakami as one of the most representative cases of cultural interactions between the U.S. and Japan. My investigation proved that Haruki Murakami's appropriation of Fitzgerald's works were conscious strategies of the writer, who was deeply aware of the theoretical problems inherent in the literary representations and the theoretical background of the age. In the latter half of the second year, I worked on another topic, the analysis of the critical reception of William Faulkner in Japan. This last study project proved the significance of William Faulkner's influence on Japanese literature and its context.
The study project lead to several important new recognitions about American studies in Japan after World War II, and would contribute to later studies.
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