JAPANESE WRITERS AND THE WEST

"This book concludes Sumie Okada's trilogy of studies of cultural relationships between Japan and the West. Six Japanese authors are discussed in relation to their concerns and connections with the West, from perspectives independent of existing Japanese literary criticism: Soseki Natsume, Yukio Mishimo, Akiko and Hiroshi ('Tekkan') Yosano, Shusaku Endo and Haruki Murakami. The differences between Western and Japanese concepts of individualism and group-orientation are discussed extensively, shedding new light on the works considered. The book also contains material relating to Endo's days at university in Lyon, and to his relationship with the French humanist Francoise Pastre. Her valuable reminiscences are rendered in a moving account by her elder sister, Genevieve Pastre, which is included both in the original French and in an English translation."--Jacket.