The failure of freedom : a portrait of modern Japanese intellectuals / Tatsuo Arima.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Arima, Tatsuo, author.

Series:

Harvard East Asian series ; 39.

Harvard East Asian Series ; 39

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intellectuals--Japan.

Intellectuals.

Liberalism--Japan.

Liberalism.

Japan--Intellectual life.

Japan.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (315 pages).

Edition:

Reprint 2013

Distribution:

London, [England] : Oxford University Press, [date of distribution not identified]

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Press, 1969.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

An excellent introduction to Japanese intellectual history in the first third of the twentieth century, this is a study of the intellectual atmosphere that made the development of a constitutional form of government difficult. As heirs to the Meiji Restoration, modern Japanese intellectuals were trapped by the historical paradox that modern Japan was born not so much of the victory of the new forces over the old, as of the skillful self-transformation of the old forces themselves. To reject parts of new Japanese society often meant to reject the whole of it.Tatsuo Arima examines the period's philosophical and religious writings and the main literary figures and groups and their works and theories about literature. He finds a widespread anticonstitutional mentality and relates it to the intellectuals' political behavior. In particular, he analyzes the reasons why prewar Japanese intellectuals, who seemed to be so opposed to the rise of nationalism, took no socially effective action to prevent its emergence and subsequently became its victims.

Contents:

Front matter

Preface

Contents

I. THE REVOLUTIONARY RESTORATION

II. UCHIMURA KANZŌ: THE POLITICS OF SPIRITUAL DESPAIR

III. THE ANARCHISTS: THE NEGATION OF POLITICS

IV. JAPANESE NATURALISM: THE LIMITATIONS OF EXPERIENCE

V. THE SHIRAKABA-HA: THE TYRANNY OF ART

VI. ARISHIMA TAKEO: BOURGEOIS CRITICISM

VII. AKUTAGAWA RYŪNOSUKE: THE LITERATURE OF DEFEATISM

VIII. PROLETARIAN LITERATURE: THE TYRANNY OF POLITICS

CONCLUSION

NOTES

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY

INDEX

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

0-674-28011-3

OCLC:

1013940013