Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 50 | 2014
Research Article | Dynamite Against the Bundan
Dynamite Against the Bundan
Fantasies of Empowerment and Violence in the Writings of Yamamura Bochō
Abstract
In my study, I investigate the strategies of empowerment within the literary field that were adopted by Yamamura Bochō (1884-1924), an author of shi (poetry in non-traditional forms) who ephemerally came to the fore of the Japanese literary scene (bundan) with the collection Seisanryōhari (The Holy Prism), published in 1915. I focus on Bochō’s articulation of a fantasy of empowerment by destruction and regeneration: such tropes are similar to the rhetorical strategies adopted by the European avant-garde movements, and, in evoking such categories as ‘terrorism’ or ‘anarchism’, they border the domains of early twentieth century political discourse. I analyze these tropes focusing on a genealogical perspective that involves both intertextual and historical research. It is argued that the rhetoric of antagonism and destruction can be a relevant focus in order to appreciate the modalities of construction of a modernist discourse from both a Japanese and comparative perspective.
Published Dec. 1, 2014 | Language: en
Copyright © 2014 Pierantonio Zanotti. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/12p
