Literature, discourse, and hegemony: national narratives of japan in the u.S. And spain
- Autores: Jordi Serrano Muñoz
- Directores de la Tesis: Antonio Monegal Brancós (dir. tes.), Pau Pitarch Fernández (codir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Pompeu Fabra ( España ) en 2019
- Idioma: español
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Manel Ollé Rodríguez (presid.), Blai Guarné Cabello (secret.), Linda Flores Ohlson (voc.)
- Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Humanidades por la Universidad Pompeu Fabra
- Materias:
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- Resumen
This thesis delves into the relationship between literature and power in the construction and reproduction of discourses of national representation, also called national narratives. This project explores the theoretical and methodological mechanisms of this relationship throughout the particular case study of analyzing how national narratives of Japan circulate from the commentary of its literature in translation in the United States and Spain. The focus is set on the reception of literary works by four authors: Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Ōe Kenzaburō, and Murakami Haruki, in the time span between 1945 and 2018. This body of texts is interpreted by searching for underlying themes that travel across critical texts and that shape a particular idea of Japan. Once this literature-based national narrative is extracted and examined, it is framed against hegemonic discourses of representation of Japan in the West to see the spaces of discursive symbiosis between culture and hegemony.
This thesis is divided into four chapters. I devote the first one to introduce and develop the necessary conceptual and methodological frameworks of this project. It presents the theoretical background of reference for the study of the relationship between literature and national narratives. In this section, I do a state of the field survey of key concepts from nation studies, reception studies, and the relationship between hegemony and discourse. This exercise sets the required definitions to further discuss the way literary texts are placed with regards to a discursively mediated background of reference. I address then the design of the methodology employed in the preparation and development of the selected case-study. This is aimed at elucidating the rationale supporting the study of the national narrative of Japan in the United States and in Spain through the analysis of critical texts commenting its literature in translation. In the next part, I elaborate a historical overview of the hegemonic national narrative of Japan in the West. I develop the argument that the hegemonic definition of this country has been constructed around the defining axiom of questioning Japan’s ascription to modernity. This discourse has allowed the West to claim legitimacy in conflicts of interests throughout history.
Chapters 2 and 3 correspond to the setting up of the literature-based national narrative by analyzing the intertextual discourse built from and transmitted through critical texts commenting the literature of Kawabata, Mishima, Ōe, and Murakami. This analysis is divided into two periods: “In Peace We Prosper,” which goes from 1945 to 1989, and “The Great Bewitchment,” from 1989 to 2018. A brief historical outline introduces each section and a summary of the main characteristics identified on the national narrative closes it.
Finally, the last chapter of this thesis puts together all the results of the intertextual analysis and draws the conclusions of the study. This section is devoted to dissect and evaluate to a full extent the terms of engagement between the literature-based national narrative of Japan and hegemonic representations of this nation. I believe the present thesis offers the opportunity to push forward significant and substantiated considerations on a rich variety of subjects that orbit around the complex yet compelling relationship between literature, discourse, and power.
Esta tesis explora la relación entre literatura y poder en la construcción y reproducción de discursos de representación nacional, también conocidos como narrativas nacionales. Los mecanismos de esta relación se exponen a través del desarrollo de un caso en particular: la narrativa nacional de Japón que circula del comentario de su literatura en traducción en Estados Unidos y en España. La muestra se ciñe a la recepción de cuatro autores: Kawabata Yasunari, Mishima Yukio, Ōe Kenzaburō y Murakami Haruki, en el período que va entre 1945 y 2018. El corpus de textos críticos se examina en busca de temas que en su circulación constituyan una idea particular de Japón que viaja intertextualmente. Una vez identificada esta narrativa nacional, se compara con el discurso hegemónico occidental de representación de Japón para ver los espacios de simbiosis discursiva entre cultura y hegemonía.
