Some Aspects of the New History of Japanese Literature

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of a new textbook of the history of Japanese literature commissioned by the Polish Scientific Publishers PWN in Warsaw, which was further developed during the writing process. The purpose of the book had to be decided before writing, as well as my thoughts on my earlier book on Japanese literature. To start, it was necessary to decide on the division of the contents into periods, as well as the genres and problems within a given epoch. It was also necessary to take into consideration the scope of civilization information introduced into the history of literature, the degree of dependence of Japanese literature on the literatures of neighboring countries, as well as on European and American literatures. I call the aforementioned matters aspects – points of view on the ways these problems are dealt with in the contents of the publication, and explain the contents comprised of the outlines of six epochs, with the onset of contacts with China in the 6th century AD. Proceeding to the most complex period in the history of Japanese literature, i.e. the 19th and 20th century, I touch on problems of “masculinity” of literature. In most of the textbooks authors and critics are men, hence I decided to examine the role of female writers in the most important trends of literature in the 20th century.