TANIZAKI JUN’ICHIRŌ (1886-1965)Nagai Kafū:Nagai Kafū:“Una misteriosa vertigine

provocata dalla paura

carnale; un intenso piacere

derivato dalla reazione ad

una crudeltà fisica;

tematiche legate al contesto

urbano; la perfezione dello

stile”

FORMAZIONE E INFLUENZE

� Edokko: figlio di mercanti, nato a Nihonbashi(Shitamachi)

� Assiste alla modernizzazione di Nihonbashi e al

declino delle ultime vestigia del passato

� Forte impressione lasciata su di lui dalla madre,� Forte impressione lasciata su di lui dalla madre,

archetipo di bellezza femminile

� Studia letteratura (senza laurearsi) all’Università

di Tokyo negli anni del naturalismo

� Opposto al naturalismo, rivendica importanza

della soggettività dell’artista

LE DUE FASI DELLA PRODUZIONE DI

TANIZAKI

� Due periodi, con diverse influenze e temi:

� Prima: influenza della letteratura occidentale

(in particolare i decadentisti: Poe, Baudelaire…)

� Dopo il trasferimento nel Kansai (dopo il� Dopo il trasferimento nel Kansai (dopo il

terremoto del 1923), e soprattutto dalla fine

degli anni ’20: mito della classicità giapponese e

ritorno fisico (Kansai) ed estetico (produzione

letteraria Heian, soprattutto Genji monogatari)

• In questa fase, polemica con Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke

LA PRIMA FASE

� “Diabolisme”: produzione lontana da shizenshugi e

shishōsetsu, “art for art’s sake”, ispirata al

decadentismo europeo (n.b.: Subaru)

� Opere rappresentative:

• Shisei (Il tatuaggio), 1910

• Chijin no ai (L’amore di uno sciocco), 1924:

transizione alla fase successiva

� In alcune opere di questa fase, sperimentazione

delle tecniche del racconto poliziesco

TEMATICHE PRINCIPALI

� Esplorazione istinti umani, soprattutto sessuali

� In particolare, istinto masochistico di un uomo che

si sottomette a una donna

• Femme fatale, bellezza (desiderio nostalgico della

madre) e crudeltàmadre) e crudeltà

� Feticismo (in particolare per i piedi della donna)

� N.B.: analisi della psiche finalizzata, diversamente

che nel naturalismo, a una ricerca estetica

� L’uomo sottomesso soddisfa un desiderio sessuale e

completa se stesso realizzando il proprio ideale di

bellezza

CHIJIN NO AI

� Elementi tipici del Decadentismo:

� Analisi dell’amore masochistico (Kawai Jōji) e

femme fatale (Naomi)

• Jōji: modello della classe media dell’epoca, forma

Naomi secondo un ideale di donna occidentaleNaomi secondo un ideale di donna occidentale

• Naomi: forte della sua nuova “emancipazione”,

ridicolizza e sottomette Jōji

� Occidente come spazio esotico, luogo di

realizzazione dei desideri nascosti

� “Why I, a man of twenty-eight, had my eye on a

child like that, I don’t understand, but at first I

was probably attracted by her name. Everyone

called her “Nao-chan”. When I asked about it one

day, I learned that her real name was Naomi,

written with three Chinese characters. The name

excited my curiosity. A splendid name, I thought.excited my curiosity. A splendid name, I thought.

Written in Roman letters, it could be a Western

name. I began to pay special attention to her.

Strangely enough, once I knew she had such a

sophisticated name, she began to take on an

intelligent, Western look.”

� “Good evening,” said the Western woman. When

she took off her hat, the first glimmer of

recognition flashed across my mind. As I studied

the face, I finally realized that it was Naomi.”

� “The Naomi of tonight was a precious object of

yearning and adoration, utterly incompatible yearning and adoration, utterly incompatible

with Naomi the filthy harlot, the whorish Naomi,

given crude nicknames by so many men. Before

this new Naomi, a man like me could only kneel

and offer worship.”

� Parodia del Giappone post modernizzazione:

� L’Occidente “imposto” a Naomi, all’inizio elemento

di attrazione (libertà, emancipazione), viene

esasperato al punto da diventare negativo

• Naomi: modern girl, si adegua ai costumi

occidentali superficialmente, come moda (società

dei consumi), ed è vittima, ma anche (volgare)dei consumi), ed è vittima, ma anche (volgare)

carnefice

� Metafora del Giappone, che deve attualizzarsi,

imita il modello occidentale, ma non ne assimila le

radici ideologiche (successo, ma dissociazione e

squilibrio nell’individuo)

� “I’m going to try to relate the facts of our

relationship as man and wife just as they

happened, as honestly and frankly as I can. […]

At the same time, I’m sure my readers will also

find it instructive. As Japan grows increasingly

cosmopolitan, Japanese and foreigners will

eagerly mingle with each other; all sorts of neweagerly mingle with each other; all sorts of new

doctrines and philosophies will be introduced;

and both men and women will adopt up-to-date

Western fashions. No doubt, the times being

what they are, the sort of marital relationship

that we’ve had, unheard of until now, will begin

to appear everywhere.”

� Parodia dello shishōsetsu

� Confessione del narratore in prima persona

� Intento, però, esplicitato: “Questo è un racconto

lungo, un watashi shōsetsu” “Con semplicità e

sincerità parlerò dei miei rapporti coniugali”

� Lettore portato a pensare che si tratti di una� Lettore portato a pensare che si tratti di una

confessione sincera (makoto), ma ironia sul genere

� I fatti (e il titolo) smentiscono il narratore:

l’immagine positiva che cerca di dare di sé (ad es.,

attraverso una serie di riferimenti colti) è viziata

LA SECONDA FASE

� Continuità tematica, ma conflitto fra modernità e

tradizione risolto nel tentativo di ricreare l’esteticagiapponese classica

• Interesse per epoca Heian (tre traduzioni del Genji)

� Fine anni ’20/inizio anni ’30: saggistica

• In’ei raisan (Elogio della penombra), 1933

• Shunkinshō kōgo (Postscriptum alla Storia di

Shunkin), 1933

• Gendai kōgobun no ketten ni tsuite (Sui difetti

della moderna lingua scritta colloquiale), 1929, e

Bunshō tokuhon (Manuale di composizione), 1934

QUALI PUNTI FONDAMENTALI EMERGONO

DA TALE PRODUZIONE SAGGISTICA?

� In’ei raisan:

� Sensibilità ed estetica giapponese: antitetica a

quella del moderno Occidente

• “Bello” giapponese: penombra, toni pallidi e• “Bello” giapponese: penombra, toni pallidi e

sfumati. Bellezza = intangibilità, toccandola si

dissolve

• “Bello” occidentale: chiaro, luminoso, brillante

� N.B.: no superiorità di una concezione sull’altra, ma

criticata la via scelta dal Giappone, che in tutti gli

ambiti ha abbandonato il passato

� Almeno la letteratura giapponese deve abbracciare

l’estetica classica, preservare il “mondo dell’ombra”,

1. Intertestualità: citazione, non mera riproduzione

2. Allusività e ambiguità, attraverso

� Strutture narrative del mistery

� Confessione con narratore inattendibile

• Distanziamento dell’autore dal protagonista, anche• Distanziamento dell’autore dal protagonista, anche

con narrazione in prima persona

� Uso della figura retorica dell’ironia:

contraddizione fra quel che si dice e quello che si

vuole sia inteso

• Diverso “contratto” fra autore e lettore: complicità,

per comprenderla e interpretarla

� Shunkinshō kōgo

• Modello di stile: monogatari e non shōsetsu

� Non visto come superiore, ma come più adeguata

versione giapponese del romanzo realista

• Concilia la fiction a un modo di narrare

giapponese: il punto di vista del narratore sigiapponese: il punto di vista del narratore si

confonde con quello dei personaggi, pluralità di

voci

� N.B.: però richiamo a una trama ben strutturata

� Gendai kōgobun no ketten ni tsuite e Bunshōtokuhon

� Genbun’itchi che rispecchi davvero il giapponese:

lingua colloquiale, ma non “contaminata” dalle

lingue occidentali (hon’yakutai)

• Lingua che rifletta le peculiarità del giapponese

(indeterminatezza soggetto, vaghezza tempi

verbali…) e la vera lingua parlata (Tokyo e Osaka)verbali…) e la vera lingua parlata (Tokyo e Osaka)

� No all’eccessivo allargamento del lessico e

all’eccessivo uso di parole nella prosa moderna

• Richiamo a un ritorno al vocabolario delgiapponese classico: poche parole il cui significato

spazia a vari campi semantici (ambiguità)

YUME NO UKIHASHI (IL PONTE DEI SOGNI), 1959

� Fulcro dell’opera: reclusa vita famigliare di Otokumi

Tadasu e rapporto fra Tadasu e Chinu

• Figura della madre morta che si identifica con la

matrignamatrigna

• Tema dell’incesto

� Dopo che Tadasu compie 18 anni, la matrigna dà

alla luce Takeshi (suo figlio?)

� “On reading the last chapter of The Tale of Genji: Today

when the summer thrush/Came to sing at Heron's Nest/I

crossed the Bridge of Dreams. This poem was written by

my mother. But I have had two mothers — the second was

a stepmother — and although I am inclined to think my

real mother wrote it, I cannot be sure. The reasons for this

uncertainty will become clear later: one of them is that both

women went by the name of Chinu. I remember hearing as

a child that Mother was named after the Bay of Chinu,a child that Mother was named after the Bay of Chinu,

since she was born nearby at Hamadera, where her family,

who were Kyoto people, had a seaside villa. She is listed as

Chinu in the official city records. My second mother was

also called Chinu from the time she came to our house. She

never used her real name, Tsuneko, again. Even my

father's letters to her were invariably addressed to “Chinu”;

you can't tell by the name which of the two he meant. And

the “Bridge of Dreams” poem is simply signed “Chinu.””

� “All of my father's love was concentrated on my mother. With

this house, this garden, and this wife, he seemed perfectly

happy. Sometimes he would have her play the koto for him,

and he would listen intently, but that was almost his only

amusement at home. A garden of less than an acre seems a

little cramped to be called a true landscape garden, but it had

been laid out with the greatest care and gave the impression of

being far deeper and more secluded than it actually was. […]

Just at the point where the stream entered the pond a bamboo

device called a “water mortar” was set up: as soon as the waterdevice called a “water mortar” was set up: as soon as the water

filled its bamboo tube, which was pivoted off-center, the tube

would drop with a hollow clack against a block of wood set

below it and the water would run out. Since the tube was

supposed to be of fresh green bamboo, with a cleanly cut open

end, the gardener had to replace it often. This sort of device is

mentioned in a fourteenth-century poem: Has the water

upstream Become a lazy current? The sound of the

mortar is rarely heard.”

� Although I have thus far written “mother” without

specifying which of the two I meant, my intention has been

to relate only memories of my true mother. Yet it occurs to

me that these recollections seem a little too detailed for a

child of three or four. Seeing her dangle her feet in the

pond, or hearing her talk about nenunawa, for instance —

would such things, if they had really happened when I was

a child of that age, have left any impression whatever?

Possibly impressions of the first mother were overlaid byPossibly impressions of the first mother were overlaid by

those of the second, confusing my memory. […] I cannot

recall my first mother's features distinctly. According to

Okane, she was very beautiful, but all that I can summon

to my mind's eye is the vague image of a full, round face.

[…] Here too I am perhaps being misled by the

superimposed image of my second mother.”

� “I mean the impression she makes, the way she talks, the

way she carries herself, her quiet, easygoing personality,

sweet and gentle, and yet deep — that's why I say she's like

your mother. If I hadn't met her I'd never have wanted to

marry again. It's only because there is such a person that

I've come to feel this way. Maybe your mother saw to it that

I happened to find this lady, for your sake as well as mine.

[…] What do you think, Tadasu? You understand what I've

been telling you, don't you?” Curiously enough, I had

already given my consent long before he finished what he

intended to say. Seeing my face light up, he added: “There'sintended to say. Seeing my face light up, he added: “There's

one thing more I'd like you to remember. When she comes

you mustn't think of her as your second mother. Think that

your mother has been away somewhere for a while and has

just come home. Even if I didn't tell you so, you'd soon

begin to look at it that way. Your two mothers will become

one, with no distinction between them. Your first mother's

name was Chinu, and your new mother's name is Chinu

too. And in everything she says and does, your new mother

will behave the way the first one did.”

� Sometimes I fretted and lay awake a long time, pleading:

“Let me sleep with Mama!” Then Mother would come to

look in at me. “My, what a little baby I have tonight,” she

would say, taking me up in her arms and carrying me to

her bedroom. […] She lay down beside me just as she was,

not taking off her sash, and held me so that my head

nestled under her chin. The light was on, but I buried my

face inside the neck opening of her kimono and had a

blurred impression of being swathed in darkness. […] I

believe I used to suckle at her breasts until I was a fairly

large child, perhaps because in those days people were notlarge child, perhaps because in those days people were not

at all strict about weaning their children.

� “Tadasu,” she asked, “do you remember how your mama

used to nurse you till you were about four years

old?” “Yes,” I said. And do you remember how she

always sang lullabies to you?” “I

remember.” “Wouldn't you still like to have your mama

do those things?” “I suppose so. . .” I answered, flushing,

aware that my heart had begun to pound. “Then come

and sleep with me tonig

� In January of the following year I learned that Mother was

pregnant. It was in the eleventh year of her marriage to my

father. Since she had never had a child before, even by her

former husband, both Father and she seemed to be

surprised that such a thing could happen, after all these

years. “I feel ashamed to be getting big like this, at my

age,” she used to say. Or again: “When you're past thirty

it's hard to give birth for the first time, I hear.” Both

Mother and Father had concentrated all their parental love

on me, and perhaps they worried about my reaction to thison me, and perhaps they worried about my reaction to this

event. If they did, they needn't have: I cannot describe how

pleased I was to think that, after all these years as an only

child, I was about to have a little brother or sister. I

suppose, too, that Father's heart was darkened now and

then by the ominous memory of my first mother's death in

pregnancy. But what struck me as odd was that neither

Father nor Mother seemed to want to bring up the matter;

I began to notice that they looked strangely gloomy

whenever the subject was mentioned.

� “The baby was a healthy one, and in due time

Father gave it the name Takeshi. But when I

came home from school one day — I believe it

was about two weeks later — I was startled to

find that Takeshi wasn't there. “Father, where

is Takeshi?” I asked. “We've sent him out to

Shizuichino for adoption,” he told me. “Someday I

think you'll understand, but for the present,

please don't ask too many questions. I didn't planplease don't ask too many questions. I didn't plan

this by myself — from the time we knew the child

was coming your mother and I discussed it

together every night. She wanted to do it even

more than I did. Maybe we shouldn't have gone

ahead without a word to you, but I was afraid

that talking to you about it might do more harm

than good.”

� “But what was the meaning of her behavior that afternoon?

[…] she had seemed far too cool to be playing such a

mischievous trick: she had acted as if this were nothing out

of the ordinary. Maybe she would have been just as calm

even if someone had come upon us. Maybe, in spite of my

having grown up, she still thought of me as a child.

Mother's state of mind was a mystery to me, but my own

actions had been equally abnormal. The moment I saw her

breasts there before me, so unexpectedly revealed, I was

back in the dream world that I had longed for, back in theback in the dream world that I had longed for, back in the

power of the old memories that had haunted me for so

many years. Then, because she lured me into it by having

me drink her milk, I ended by doing the crazy thing I did.

In an agony of shame, wondering how I could have

harbored such insane feelings, I paced back and forth

around the pond alone. But at the same time that I

regretted my behavior, and tortured myself for it, I felt that

I wanted to do it again — not once, but over and over.”

� “I haven't much longer,” he said. “But this was meant to be, so I

am resigned to it. When I go to the other world your mother will

be waiting for me, and I'm happy at the thought of meeting her

again after all these years. What worries me most is your poor

stepmother. She still has a long life ahead of her, but once I'm

gone she'll have only you to rely on. So please take good care of

her — give her all your love. Everyone says you resemble me. I

think so myself. As you get older you'll look even more like me. If

she has you, she'll feel as if I am still alive. I want you to think of

taking my place with her as your chief aim in life, as the only kindtaking my place with her as your chief aim in life, as the only kind

of happiness you need.”Never had he looked at me that way

before, deep into my eyes. Though I felt I could not fully

understand the meaning of his gaze, I nodded my consent; and he

gave a sigh of relief. Then, after pausing a few minutes until he

was breathing easily once more, he went on: “In order to make

her happy you'll have to marry, but instead of marrying for your

own sake you must marry for your mother's, to have someone who

will help you take care of her. I've been thinking of Kajikawa's

daughter Sawako. . .”

� “In July the three of us would sit by the pond together to

enjoy the cool of evening. Like my father, I would take a few

bottles of beer to put under the spout of the bamboo mortar.

Mother drank too, several glasses if I urged her; but Sawako

always refused. Mother would dangle her bare feet in the

water, saying: “Sawako, you ought to try this. It makes you

delightfully cool!” But Sawako would sit there primly in her

rather formal summer dress, with a heavy silk sash bound

tightly around her waist. “Your feet are so pretty!” she would

say. “I couldn't possibly show ugly ones like mine besidesay. “I couldn't possibly show ugly ones like mine beside

them!” It seemed to me that she was too reserved. She

might have been a little freer and more intimate with someone

who would eventually become her mother-in-law. But she

seemed too solicitous, too eager to please; often her words had

a tinge of insincerity. Even her attitude toward me was

curiously old-fashioned, for a girl who had been graduated

from high school.”

� “Mother and I were the objects of their criticism, more than

the match with Kajikawa's daughter. To put it bluntly, they

believed that we were committing incest. According to them,

Okane said, Mother and I began carrying on that way while

Father was still alive, and Father himself, once he knew he

wouldn't recover, had tolerated it — even encouraged it.

Some went so far as to ask whose baby had been smuggled

out to Tamba, suggesting that Takeshi was my own child,

not my father's. […] Okane explained that everyone in our

neighborhood had been gossiping this way about us for a

long time. […] My relatives thought that my dying fatherlong time. […] My relatives thought that my dying father

arranged for me to marry Sawako because only a girl with

her disadvantages would accept such a match. Most

scandalous of all, his reason for wanting me to keep up

appearances by taking a wife was presumably to have me

continue my immoral relationship with Mother. Kajikawa

was well aware of these circumstances in giving his

daughter, and Sawako was going to marry out of respect for

her father's wishes — needless to say, they had their eyes on

our property.”

� “Sawako was weeping aloud. “I'm to blame, I'm to

blame,” she kept repeating. I have no intention of

trying to describe the feelings of horror, grief, despair,

dejection, which swept over me then; nor do I think it

reflects credit on myself to be suspicious of anyone

without a shred of evidence. Yet I cannot escape

certain nagging doubts. […] I wonder if Mother's

death was entirely accidental. Might not someone

have had a scheme in mind for using a centipede, ifhave had a scheme in mind for using a centipede, if

one of them appeared? Perhaps it was only a rather

nasty joke, with no thought that a mere insect bite

could be fatal. But supposing that her weak heart had

been taken into account, that the possibility had

seemed attractive. . . Even if the scheme failed, no one

could prove that the centipede had been deliberately

caught and placed there.”

� “I have tentatively given this narrative the title of The Bridge of

Dreams, and have written it, however amateurishly, in the form

of a novel. But everything that I have set forth actually happened

— there is not one falsehood in it. Still, if I were asked why I took

it into my head to write at all, I should be unable to reply. I am

not writing out of any desire to have others read this. At least, I

don't intend to let anyone see it as long as I am alive. If someone

happens across it after my death, there will be no harm in that;

but even if it is lost in oblivion, if no one ever reads it, I shall have

no regret. I write for the sake of writing, simply because I enjoy

looking back at the events of the past and trying to rememberlooking back at the events of the past and trying to remember

them one by one. Of course, all that I record here is true: I do not

allow myself the slightest falsehood or distortion. But there are

limits even to telling the truth; there is a line one ought not to

cross. And so, although I certainly never write anything untrue,

neither do I write the whole of the truth. Perhaps I leave part of it

unwritten out of consideration for my father, for my mother, for

myself. . . If anyone says that not to tell the whole truth is in fact

to lie, that is his own interpretation. I shall not venture to deny

it.”

� Intertestualità

� Richiamo al Genji monogatari

• Titolo

• Chiave di lettura per il testo (matrigna: Fujitsubo;

Takeshi: Reizei)

� Ambiguità (“ombra”)

� Elemento “mistery”: ordine non cronologico,

confusione, vuoti e silenzi: Takeshi è figlio di Tadasu?confusione, vuoti e silenzi: Takeshi è figlio di Tadasu?

Sawako (o Tadasu) ha ucciso la matrigna?

� Uso del modello della confessione, ma atto

dichiaratamente non sincero, letterario

• Confessione mirata a nascondere, usata per

trasmettere una determinata immagine al lettore da un

narratore-protagonista inattendibile

SHŌSETSU NO SUJI RONSŌ小説の筋論争

(“LA CONTROVERSIA SULLA TRAMA DEL

ROMANZO”), FEBBRAIO – GIUGNO 1927

� Dibattito fra Akutagawa e Tanizaki, sulla più

ampia scia del dibattito critico degli anni ‘20 e‘30

Che cos’è e di che cosa deve occuparsi lo shōsetsu?� Che cos’è e di che cosa deve occuparsi lo shōsetsu?

� Rapporto Giappone-Occidente e presente-passato

� Fiction (makoto) VS non-fiction (uso)

� Junbungaku (letteratura pura) VS

taishūbungaku (letteratura “popolare”, “di

massa”)

TERMINI CHIAVE DEL DIBATTITO

Suji vs hanashi

(Omoshiroi vs geijutsutekina)

� Tanizaki: “l’art est un beau mensonge”

(Stendhal); “sia quando compongo le mie opere,

sia quando leggo quelle degli altri, ciò che non è

finzione non mi interessa”.

• Idea che la verità umana possa essere più

facilmente evocata attraverso l’artificio

Idea che ciò che conta sia una trama• Idea che ciò che conta sia una tramainteressante, che si realizza nel modo di

comporre i fatti, nella bellezza strutturale e

architettonica dell’opera

� Denuncia degli influssi negativi del periodo

naturalista

� Akutagawa: “la frammentarietà non è altro

che purezza”

• Supremazia della verità sulla finzione; è più

importante la verità personale che una trama

complessa.

• Il lettore sarà sicuramente attratto da una bella

trama, ma il lettore “serio” cerca di più che

l’intrattenimentol’intrattenimento

� Denuncia del disprezzo di Tanizaki verso i

progressi della fiction giapponese a partire da

Tsubouchi: lo shōsetsu è ormai riconosciuto come

“forma seria di letteratura” capace di esprimere i

più profondi sentimenti umani; Tanizaki rischia

di riportare alla nozione di shōsetsu come forma

di triviale intrattenimento

AKUTAGAWA

RYŪNOSUKE

(1892-1927)� Carriera breve (1914-1927) ma

eterogenea, interessi vari

• Classicità, Edo

• Letteratura inglese, cultura

classica europea, cristianesimo

� “Essendo nato nel Giappone

moderno, non posso che sentire

dentro di me infinite

frammentazioni e divisioni, sia

artisticamente, sia

personalmente”

PRIMA PRODUZIONE

� Rielaborazione e attualizzazione di motivi e storie

precedenti (straniere e classiche giapponesi)

� Forte presenza intertestuale

� Opposizione allo shishōsetsu, con storie già note

� Forma tipica: racconto breve storico e fantastico� Forma tipica: racconto breve storico e fantastico

� Però, approfondimento psicologico

� Anche su influenza di Sōseki, centralità al tema

della modernità in Giappone

� A tale tematica, si connette la trattazione del

problema dell’identità e alterità

� 1915: Rashōmon: non

grande attenzione di

critica e pubblico, ma

rappresentativa

� Tema dell’alterità:� Tema dell’alterità:

trattato in particolar

modo in Hana (1916), e

Kappa (1927)

KAWABATA

YASUNARI

(1899-1972)

PRIMA FASE: ADESIONE ALLO

SHINKAKAKUHA (“SCUOLA DELLA NUOVA

SENSIBILITÀ”)

� Avanguardia del modernismo

� Scopo della scrittura: “Art for art’s sake”

� Sperimentalismo tematico-narrativo e stilistico

Attenzione per il mondo urbano, con estetica• Attenzione per il mondo urbano, con esteticadella velocità e della meccanizzazione

• Priorità alle sensazioni

• Rifiuto della coerenza della struttura narrativa e

del dialogo, stile frammentario, libere

associazioni: la realtà è in continuo fluire, e non

può essere colta razionalmente

� Asakusa Kurenaidan (La banda scarlatta di

Asakusa, 1929-1930)

� Esperienze cinematografiche: Kurutta ippeji

(1926)

� N.B.: anche dopo questa fase, letteratura vista

come “flusso libero”, riflesso dell’esistenza

� Preferenza per i racconti brevi: Tanagokoro� Preferenza per i racconti brevi: Tanagokoro(tenohira) no shōsetsu掌の小説 (1921 – 1972)

• 146 racconti, spesso brevissimi, prodotti lungo

tutto l’arco della carriera di Kawabata,

cristallizzazione delle sue tematiche e del suo stile

� Anche i romanzi lunghi hanno una struttura simile

a raccolte di racconti

PRODUZIONE DAGLI ANNI ‘20: “NEW

PSYCHOLOGISM” E CLASSICITÀ

� Influenza di Valéry, Gide, James, Proust, e

soprattutto Joyce:

� Sperimentazione dello stream of consciousness e

associazioni libere applicate all’analisi

dell’inconscio, su ispirazione di Freuddell’inconscio, su ispirazione di Freud

� Al contempo, interesse per poetica tradizionale

� Desiderio di preservare l’identità culturale del

Giappone e di farla conoscere all’estero

� Tendenza accentuata soprattutto dopo la fine della

guerra, in risposta alla distruzione morale e

materiale del paese

YUKIGUNI (IL PAESE DELLE NEVI, 1937-

1948)

� Romanzo lungo (poi riscritto come tenohira, 1972)

� Linguaggio visivo, legato alle percezioni di

Shimamura (retaggio del Shinkankakuha)

� Debolezza dei personaggi (Shimamura / Komako)� Debolezza dei personaggi (Shimamura / Komako)

rispetto alla forza delle immagini

� Però maggiore spessore alla figura femminile

� Nakamura Mitsuo: l’“io” narrante di Yukiguni

corrisponde alla figura dello waki nel teatro nō, la

cui funzione e introdurre lo shite, vero

protagonista, Komako

VITTORIA DEL NOBEL (1968)

� Kawabata Yasunari was the first Japanese to win the

Nobel Prize for Literature. The award was made in 1968,

exactly one hundred years after the new era of Japanese

literature opened with the Meiji restoration. Kawabata was

unquestionably a modern man, and his works dealt

exclusively with the lives of contemporaries, but the Nobelexclusively with the lives of contemporaries, but the Nobel

Prize Committee honored him because of the special

affinities his works revealed with Japanese traditions. The

Japanese public was naturally delighted to learn of the

award, though surprise was expressed that a writer who

was difficult to understand even for Japanese should have

been so appreciated abroad.

(Donald KEENE, Dawn to the West, P. 786)

“For his narrative

mastery, which

with great

sensibility

expresses theexpresses the

essence of the

Japanese mind”

DISCORSO PER IL NOBEL: UTSUKUSHII

NIHON NO WATAKUSHI

� Utsukushii Nihon: celebrazione della bellezza,

in particolare della bellezza naturale, del

Giappone

Sublimata nella poesia tradizionale, come� Sublimata nella poesia tradizionale, come

strumento attraverso cui il poeta esprime le sue

emozioni

� Riplasmata nelle altre arti tipicamente

giapponesi (la cerimonia del té, i giardini.)

� Contemplata nello zen

“Il professor Yashiro Yukio, esperto di arte orientale e

occidentale, antica e moderna, (...) ha detto che una delle

“caratteristiche dell’arte giapponese” può essere sintetizzata in

una sola frase poetica: “Pensare agli amici quando è il tempo

della neve, della luna e dei fiori di ciliegio. Quando vediamo la

bellezza della neve, quando vediamo la bellezza della luna, in

breve, quando apriamo gli occhi sulla bellezza dei singoli

momenti nel corso delle stagioni e ne siamo sfiorati, quando

abbiamo la fortuna di venire a contatto con la bellezza, allora

pensiamo agli amici più cari (...); insomma l’emozione della pensiamo agli amici più cari (...); insomma l’emozione della

bellezza risveglia in noi la simpatia, l’affetto per le persone. In

questo caso, penso che “amico” possa essere letto in senso più

ampio, come “essere umano”. Ancora, le parole che esprimono

la bellezza dei singoli momenti nel corso delle stagioni, “neve,

luna, fiori di ciliegio” per tradizione in Giappone sono

diventate parole che indicano la bellezza di monti e fiumi, erbe

e piante, di tutta la natura, dell’universo intero, e che

includono anche le emozioni umane.”

Da “La bellezza del Giappone ed io”, trad. Maria Teresa Orsi

�Watakushi: la letteratura è, per Kawabata, il

personale strumento per raccontare la bellezza del

Giappone all’Occidente

� Nel discorso, riallaccia esplicitamente la sua

produzione letteraria alla letteratura Heian, in

particolare l’Ise monogatari e il Genji monogatari:

“Da ragazzino anche se ancora non conoscevo bene la

lingua antica, le mie letture erano per lo più lingua antica, le mie letture erano per lo più

costituite dai classici della letteratura Heian e fra

questi la Storia di Genji, credo, e l’opera che più si e

impressa nel mio cuore. Per centinaia d’anni, dopo

che la Storia di Genji e stata scritta, il romanzo

giapponese ha cercato di eguagliarlo, ha continuato

a proporne varianti e imitazioni.”

Da “La bellezza del Giappone ed io”, trad. Maria Teresa Orsi

“[dall’Ise monogatari] “...essendo un uomo raffinato,

[Ariwara no Yukihira] aveva sistemato alcuni fiori, e

fra essi uno straordinario trancio di glicine. Era

lungo più di un metro”.

Un tralcio di glicine che raggiunga quella lunghezza

è davvero sorprendente e si può dubitare che l’autore

dicesse la verità, eppure io vedo in questo fiore di

glicine il simbolo di tutta la cultura di epoca Heian.

Il glicine è un fiore molto giapponese e racchiude in Il glicine è un fiore molto giapponese e racchiude in

sé una grazia tutta femminile, i suoi grappoli che

seguono il soffio leggero del vento appaiono delicati,

flessibili, di una bellezza sommessa, e mentre

mostrano e si nascondono tra il verde di prima estate

sembrano ispirare quell’intenso sentimento verso le

cose che ci circondano, conosciuto come mono no

aware.”

Da “La bellezza del Giappone ed io”, trad. Maria Teresa Orsi