| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,800,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2004: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥700,000 (Direct Cost: ¥700,000)
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| Research Abstract |
When I started studying Northern Irish fiction, my concern was how Northern Irish novelists represented the conflict between Nationalists and Unionists and how they showed ways out of the conflict. As I continued to study Northern Irish fiction, however, I discovered that Northern Irish novelists are writing about broader subjects which appeal to universal minds. George A.Birmingham, for example, reveals a philosophical truth that one should not think of everything so seriously and humor is necessary in everything. His belief is relevant to solutions to every human conflict in the world. The heroes of Birmingham's novels show the spirit of "self-sacrifice", which Birmingham learnt from his practice as a Church of Ireland clergyman. Birmingham also published books on Christianity such as The Wisdom of the Desert (1904) and Isaiah (1937). I am going to explore how Birmingham's ideas of Christian ethics are represented in his novels.
In contemporary Northern Irish fiction, too, there are a
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number of important writers such as Bernard MacLaverty and Glenn Patterson. In Number 5 (2003) and That Which Was (2004), Patterson depicts various appearances and concerns of Belfast as well as the conflict between Nationalists and Unionists and endeavors to present a new identity for the Northern Irish. In this sense Birmingham and Patterson are writing about similar subjects, which justify Michael Parker's claim that one should read Birmingham for a better appreciation of Patterson. Patterson's next novel will be The Third Party (2007) which describes a Northern Irish man's "odyssey" in Japan.
In 2003, I published a book, Potential in Northern Irish Fiction : Quests for Reconciliation and Universality, in which I discussed some of the novelists whom I had studied for the past 15 years.
My first aim at present is to make further research on Birmingham for a publication of a critical study of his fiction. I also would like to publish one of Patterson's novels in a Japanese translation. My another research project is to make clearer universality and potential of Northern Irish fiction through explorations of writers such as Joyce Cary and C.S.Lewis who became renowned as English novelists. Less
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