J-Bungaku

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J-Bungaku ( Japanese Ｊ 文学 , Eng. "J-literature") generally refers to the easily consumable contemporary Japanese literature for the average young city dweller.

term

The coinage J-Bungaku can be traced back to the marketing strategy of the publishing house Kawade Shobō Shinsha . In August 1998, Kawade put together a now legendary literary guide as a special edition of the in-house magazine Bungei and gave it the title J-Bungaku: '90 -nendai bungaku mappu ( Eng . "J-literature: A map of the literature of the '90s", JBM ). J-Bungaku does not stand for junbungaku ( 純 文学 ), for the “pure literature”, which officially represented the literature of Japan with its specific author and work canon until the 1990s as “national literature ” ( 国 文学 , kokubungaku ), but for contemporary Japanese Literature, easily consumable for the average young city dweller.

Content and history of J-Bungaku

The J-Bungaku design , which is based on the J-Pop concept and initially means a contemporary "Japanese pop literature", contains a pronounced visual component. In this respect, the design of the small catalog from 1998 is revealing: No well-known author in a thinking pose adorns the cover - it is the reader (who enjoys reading) who is the focus of interest. She is dressed as the fashion magazines recommend and sits on the roof terrace of a skyscraper, in front of her a stack of books wrapped in yellow, blue and red paper - which turns the books into colorful accessories, so to speak, and thus of a potentially burdensome function as Education providers exempt. In JBM as well as in other overviews of current contemporary literature as well as in the innovative trend and literary magazine Da Vinci (first edition 1994) we find representatives of the art and entertainment scene or the authors depicted in idol fashion, veritable "honboys" who represent the product Offer the book as male "literature pinups" in a seductive pose to the predominantly female readership identified as willing to read. Within this concept, authors, books and readers are part of a pleasurable lifestyle-coded interaction in the Japanese experience society.

The literary change in the sign of the capital "J" was registered early on on the Japanese side by the literary scholar Minato Kawamura ( Hōsei University ). Kawamura, who refers to the relevant advertising strategy of Kawade, speaks of "J literati" in his article from the late 1990s. In “J literature” he sees nothing more than the salvation of an endangered contemporary Japanese literature that lost all vigor shortly before the turn of the millennium. While the J-Bungaku formula is rightly dismissed by some discussion participants as flamboyant and superficial, it is symptomatic of Japanese literature around the year 2000, not least because of its commercial background. If you want to work with her in order to capture the latest developments in the Japanese literary scene, you would first have to compile a small canon of authors from contemporary Japanese literature; the closer J-Bungaku circle includes the following authors: Kazushige Abe (* 1968) (debut 1994 with Amerika no yoru ), Mari Akasaka (* 1964) (1993; Kibakusha ), Kō Machida (* 1962) (1996; Kussun Daikoku ) , Masaya Nakahara (* 1970) (1996-97; Setsubō no sampomichi ), Seigō Suzuki (* 1970) (1997; Radio Days ), Mitsuyo Kakuta (* 1967) (1990; Kōfuku na yūgi ), Seishū Hase (* 1965) (1996; Fuyajō ), Shū Fujisawa (* 1959) (1993; Zōn o hidari ni magare ) and Mangetsu Hanamura (* 1955) (1989; God plays monogatari ).

This list is already of the past. Publishing houses, literary journalism and literary criticism kept the discussion about J-Bungaku alive until around 2002. In 2003, one can speak of a literature based on J-Bungaku, with "post-J-Bungaku" authors such as Hitomi Kanehara (* 1983) ( Hebi ni piasu , 2003) and Risa Wataya (* 1984) ( Install , 2001 ) as well as a recent wave of light novels and semi-authorless genres. For the latter, the net shōsetsu (dt. "Internet novel") like Densha otoko (2004; written by Nakano Hitori ( 中 野 独 人 )) or the keitai shōsetsu (dt. " Mobile phone novel ") should be expected, z. B. Deep Love (2000 on keitai platform, 2002–2003 in book form) by an author named Yoshi.

Currents and tendencies of J-Bungaku

The currents and tendencies of contemporary Japanese literature identified as part of the J-Bungaku campaign include the emergence of a new “proletarian literature” (literary Neoproletarians include Shungiku Uchida and Natsuo Kirino ), and there is also a “sociological turning point " to speak. The problematic sociotypes in a Japan of the “Lost Decade”, in Kirino's “Bubblonia”, which shape the macro-sociological cultural and social discourse, are now increasingly the protagonists of the texts. A “ Freeter literature ”, a Hikikomori literature and a NEETs literature have already been proclaimed. In the J-Bungaku as a “literature of the recession” or as “Japanese precarious literature” one encounters the current problems of post- bubble Japan , which are widely reported in the media : Aum shock (keyword poa sareru ), reform ( risutora ), social coldness , Disintegration of the family ( 家族 の 崩 壊 , kazoku no hōkai ), consumerism, violence ( 暴力 , bōryoku ), bullying ( ijime ), attacks by the “ Chinese mafia ”, “losers” ( 負 け 組 , makegumi ), lower class society ( 社会 , karyū shakai ), “expectation gradient ” ( 希望 格 差 , kibō kakusa ), outdated society ( 高 齢 化 社会 , kōreika shakai ), bulimia and “internet suicide ” ( ネ ッ ト 自殺 , net jisatsu ; = Kirino Natsuo “metabola”).

In addition to the dark component, J-Bungaku naturally includes numerous other facets, including a "new Japanese women's literature" addressed under the label "L-Literature" ( Minako Saitō ), a "Japanese intercultural literature" called ekkyô bungaku (越境 文学) , a therapeutically ambitious, often religious and esoteric literature ( 癒 し 文学 , iyashi bungaku ) with advisory qualities ( 生 き 方 の 本 , ikikata no hon ) and the marketing typical of the time can be expected. Not least because "J-Bungaku" implies that in Japan the country's own literature is now also perceived from an outside perspective and, according to the 1990s government slogan " Cool Japan ", wants to place it as a transferable, mercantile and prestigious factor in a non-Japanese context, it should be worthwhile to include the term in an analysis of contemporary Japanese literature.

Secondary literature

  • Yoshiko Fukushima: Japanese Literature, or J-Literature in the 1990’s . In: World Literature Today , 2003, pp. 40-44.
  • Lisette Gebhardt (Ed.): “Yomitai! New Literature from Japan ”. Berlin: EB-Verlag Dr. Brandt, 2012, p. 196; 215.
  • J-Bungaku. '90 -nendai bungaku mappu (1998). Bungei Bessatsu (August edition) . Kawade Shobō Shinsha, Tokyo
  • Minato Kawamura: A Survey of Japanese Literature in 1998 (Part I). In: Japanese Literature Today , 1999, pp. 4-9.
  • Akira Nagae: Bungaku da J. Furyō no tame no shōsetsu annai . Ihatov, Tokyo 1999

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