Introduction to Japanese Literature 1

Overview of Japanese literature from its beginnings to the present:
- centralisation of Japan and beginnings of literacy, influence of the Chinese cultural sphere,
- cultural and political maturing in the Nara period: buddhism, imperial chronicles, indigenous literature (Man'yoshu, first prose works),
- flowering and decline of Heian court literature (diaries, arrival of novels, setsuwa literature, imperial anthologies of poetry),
- rise of military power and new literary forms in Kamakura period,
- literature in the times of political instability, appearance of theatre and new poetic forms in the Muromachi period,
- consolidation in the Edo period and the appearance of townspeople literature,
- opening to the outside world and Meiji Restoration: end of classical literature, role of literature in establishing the »national language«, new trends at the turn of 19c to 20c;
- literature under the pressure of militarisation: from puroretaria bungaku to nationalism;
- post WWII democracy and renewed flowering of literature;
- post-industrial society and authors of the last quarter of 20c.

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