Session 09—Tu, Feb 14: Kawabata Yasunari and his Snow Country (1935–1948) Session 1

Topics for this session

❖ Kawabata Yasunari—biography & concepts
❖ Kawabata Yasunari—Snow County (1935–1948)

Thoughts*

Snow Country is one of my favorite Japanese literary works, from any period. This is a novel that suggests more than it overtly states, so please try to get deeply into the relationships described—not just what they are (who is what for whom) but the complex, full content of them. This is key. For me, just as critical is Kawabata's view of beauty. While reading, ask yourself, "How is this author defining beauty?" This is critical for this volume, definitely, but it is very much part of what Kawabata contributed to Japanese literature and it is an issue we consider with several authors, in particular Tanizaki, Kawabata and Mishima. Mishima was close to Kawabata (personally) and while on first encounter their views of beauty seem radically different (even though "beauty" is absolutely central to both Snow Country and The Temple of the Golden Pavilion), they do share some important aspects.

Please do not rush this work; it is very hard to engage meaningfully when zipping through.

Spring 2012: I covered a set of short stories by reading them aloud then making these points as I went along

• After the first story: the pure being seen by the impure eye, delicacy in expression / perception
• After the second story: artistic / emotive suggestiveness beyond the narrative's explicit content (yojō)
• After the third story: building / filling out the story by the reader, the richness of the story comes from turning things over in one's imaginative, observant, sensitively thoughtful mind
• After the fourth story: (forgot to mention!) although all the stories are embedded in a certain sensual, intimate, sad context, sometimes that context is truly tragic, even if quietly narrated

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Snow Country, first half.

NOTE: In the version translated by Edward Seidensticker — and this is the translation you should use — the book is split into two parts with the first part ending about halfway through, at page 87. In the original Japanese there is no such division.

My Web site has some pages (under construction!) devoted to Snow Country that were developed for a different class. These pages include portraits of Kawabata, maps, local information, a chronology on when what parts of the novel were written and so on: Snow Country Main Page

Texts, multimedia notes, links*

❖ Kawabata01 [bSpace, PPT]
❖ Kawabata02 [bSpace, PPT]
❖ Kawabata03 [bSpace, PPT]

Other*

yojō 余情

*THOUGHTS: Reading before class probably helps follow session content, reading afterwards might help consolidate notes, revisiting for tests is recommended. Content might be added before class or anytime up until about 24 hours ahead of a midterm.

*TEXTS, MULTIMEDIA NOTES, LINKS: If I have read from something, shown something or presented audio, I usually include that information here. If I consider it testable material, it will definitely be listed here. Miscellaneous material that I show may or may not be listed. I often add material at the last minute and hope to have time later to note it, but often cannot.

*OTHER: When possible I note here names, places, and other details that I have mentioned in a lecture that would otherwise not be accessible in the assigned materials or easily located on your own. As with "TEXTS ..." this is usually sometime after class and, again, I might not be able to get around to doing it.