Child of Darkness: Yoko and Other Stories Volume 18

Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies #18

by Yoshikichi Furui, Donna Storey (Translator)

Yoko (winner of the Akutagawa Prize in 1971) is the story of a sensitive young man's relationship with the title character, a beautiful young woman who is suffering from an apparently hereditary mental illness. Through Y¯ko's vivid but distorted perceptions of the world, Furui highlights the process by which reality and identity are created. Above all, however, Yoko is a touching, if somewhat unusual, tale of a young couple's deepening love.
 The other two short stories in this collection, "The Plain of Sorrows" and "The Doll," deal with the subject of coming to terms with aging and death, thus shifting the focus from the crises of young adulthood to those of middle age.
 "This important author's work has been hard to find in the West, and one is grateful for the translations and accompanying commentaries by Donna George Storey."--William Ferguson, New York Times Book Review
 Furui Yoshikichi has won the Akutagawa Prize (1971), the Nihon Bungaku Taisho¯ (1980), the Tanizaki Prize (1983), the Kawabata Yasunari Prize (1988), and the Yomiuri Prize (1989).Donna George Storey is a Visiting Assistant Professor in Japanese Literature, University of California, Berkeley.

Genres: Japan, Short Stories, Fiction, Japanese Literature, Literary Fiction

214 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

Yoshikichi Furui (古井 由吉 , born November 19, 1937) is a noted Japanese author and translator.

Furui was born in Tokyo, Japan. He was educated at the University of Tokyo, where he majored in German literature, receiving a BA in 1960. His undergraduate thesis was on Franz Kafka. He remained at Tokyo University for graduate work for another two years, earning an MA in German literature in 1962. After graduating, he accepted a position at Kanazawa University where he taught German language and literature for 3 years. He subsequently moved to Rikkyo University in Tokyo where he remained as an assistant professor of German literature until the watershed year of 1970.

The early 1970s was a period of rapid economic growth and cultural efflorescence. In the literary sphere, a new group of authors was emerging. These authors differed notably from their predecessors because of their move away from the overt social and political commentary—particularity as directed against the system that supported Japan's involvement in World War II—then common both in recent works of literature, and as a measure by which literature was measured. Because this new group of authors turned their gaze from society to the individual, looking inward, engaging the fears and fantasies of an urban population beset by a crisis of identity in a time of rapid economic growth, they were called the introverted generation, and Furui was, perhaps, their exemplar.

In 1970 Furui resigned from Rikkyo University to become a full-time writer. In 1971 his novella Yoko (杳子) was awarded the Akutagawa Prize, and he has subsequently won both the Tanizaki Prize and Kawabata Prize.

Furui has also translated Robert Musil and Hermann Broch.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[dajai2345 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yoshikichi Furui studied kafka, Robert Musil and Hermann Broch.
he is one of japanese literary group ' introverted generation'.
he's called japanese beckett.
he translated Robert Musil and Hermann Broch.

'yoko' is about a man falling in love with woman who has mental illness. it's close to beckett's 'first love'. set in japan, mountain(first secne), city, park, house.
very dark.

[Carlos · Rating 1 out of 5]

A rather disappointing volume. The stories included in this volume deal mainly with a disconnect between the protagonist and the world around them. This is, however, putting it in comprehensible terms. The stories protagonist can also correctly be called neurotic or maladjusted and the reader can expect a level of intelligibility consequent with those descriptions. Neither the stories nor the styles seemed particularly engaging and it is difficult to imagine who the intended audience for these writings.

[Ophélie Regat · Rating 3 out of 5]

Deux textes de l'auteur Yoshikichi Furui : Yoko et la Tanière amoureuse.

Derrière ces deux nouvelles se cachent une poésie relative aux liens entre deux personnes névrosées puis aux liens dans un couple à la vie monotone que je n'ai pas vraiment su capter.

Je ne suis jamais très à l'aise avec ce genre de littérature.

[Mimi Sammons · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yōko was a beautiful and enlightening commentary about mental illness and what it means to be alive. Yoshikichi normalizes mental illness through the main character and her wish to stay on the border between health and illness. Must read!!