Proletarian literature

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Proletarian literature ( Japanese プ ロ レ タ リ ア 文学 , Puroretaria bungaku ) is a genre within Japanese literature that rejected individualistic literature and was linked to socialism and communism . It began in 1921 with the establishment of the Tanemakuhito magazine and ended in 1934 with the dissolution of the NARP authors' league.

development

Precursors: socialist literature and workers' literature

The forerunners of proletarian literature are:

Phase 1: Tanemakuhito magazine

Komaki Ōmi and Kaneko Yōbun published from 1921 the magazine Tanemakuhito (The Sower), which is considered an international offshoot of the Clarté movement , and tried to create a literature that was related to a reform of the social situation. Her Tanemaki Zakki (Seed Notes), which recorded various tragedies that occurred on the occasion of the Kanto earthquake in 1923, were highly valued . But shortly after the earthquake the magazine was discontinued.

Phase 2: The magazine Literaturfront and the time of divisions

In 1924 a new formation took place with the magazine Bungei Sensen (literary front ), which initially became the central magazine of the new proletarian literature. Hirabayashi Hatsunosuke and Aono Suekichi argued from a theoretical point of view. Aono's article "'Shirabeta' Geijutsu" ("Researched 'Art") motivated the authors. You should not only describe what you have experienced yourself, but actively research it. For example, through visits to factories or farms, as Nakano demanded. New writers appeared like Hayama Yoshiki with Inbaifu (prostitute) or Kuroshima Denji with Tongun ( herd of pigs).

On December 6, 1925, the first association was founded: the Purors (Nihon Puroretaria Bungei Renmei; Japanese Proletarian Literature League). At this time, especially in politics, confrontations between social democracy and communism arose , but contradictions also developed in the camp of proletarian literature:

  • In 1927 the Puroren was renamed Purogei , which from then on also represented the main direction.
    • Name: Purogei, Nihon Puroretaria Geijutsu Renmei (Japanese Proletarian Art League)
    • Journal: Puroretaria Geijutsu
    • Important members: Nakano Shigeharu
  • In June of this year, the social democratic Rōgei split from the Marxist Purogei.
    • Name: Rōgei, Rōnō Geijutsuka Renmei (Workers 'and Peasants' League)
    • Journal: Literaturfront
    • Important members: Hayama Yoshiki
  • Another split took place in November: the Maegei formed from the Rōgei, which had just been founded .
    • Name: Maegei, Zenei Geijutsuka Dōmei (Avant-garde Artists League)
    • Magazine: Zen'ei
    • Important members: Kurahara Korehito

When Kurahara tried to overcome this situation in 1928, he called for the establishment of an amalgamation in which the existing organizations would remain as before. Therefore, on March 13, the Nihon Sayoku Bungeika Sōrengō (Association of Left Japanese Writers) was founded. But the Rōgei showed no interest in actively participating in this call. This is also due to the indifferent attitude that the Rōgei assumed towards the merger of Purogei and Maegei.

Phase 3: NAPF / KOPF and the time of repression

Shortly after the mass arrests of the March 15 incident , Purogei and Maegei merged to form the NAPF .

  • Name: NAPF, Zennihon Musansha Geijutsu Renmei (All-Japanese Proletarian Art League)
  • Senki magazine (war flag)
  • Important members: Kobayashi Takiji, Tokunaga Sunao

That the NAPF had authority was due to the two emerging authors Kobayashi Takiji and Tokunaga Sunao . In series, Takiji published the short novels Senkyūhyakunijūhachinen sangatsu jūgonichi ("March 15, 1928") and Kanikōsen (Crab Ship ), then the novel Taiyō no nai machi (The Road Without Sun) and made the Senki a typical journal of proletarian literature. Therefore there were authors like Kurojima Denji who switched from the literary front to the flag of war , and also writers like Miyamoto Kenji joined the alliance, which with "Haiboku" no Bungaku ( literature of "defeat" ), which is with those from the Soviet Union after Miyamoto Yuriko and Akutagawa Ryūnosuke , who had returned to Japan, had won an award from the literary criticism of the Kaizō ( redesign ) magazine . Reliable authors such as Iwatō Yukio or Itō Einosuke were also active on the literary front at this time , but the relationship as a student and master that triggered the Daisaku incident (the writing of texts for someone else), which was also a cause, was formative it was why the Rōgei with its literary front did not gain a reputation like that of the NAPF with its war flag .

Kurahara, who had secretly traveled to the Soviet Union in 1930 and had attended a Profintern conference , suggested popularizing the literary organizations after his return in 1931. It was an attempt to create literary circles in factories and villages and turn them into a source of new authors and readers. There was criticism of this organization, but on November 12th 1931 the NAPF was dissolved and on November 27th it was re-established as KOPF , which also had structures for other art genres.

  • Description: KOPF, Nihon Puroretaria Bungaku Renmei (German Japanese Proletarian Culture League)
  • Literature organization within the KOPF: NARP , Nihon Puroretaria Sakka Dōmei (Japanese Proletarian Author League )

In this way, writers advocating social reforms published various works, but with the rise of fascism , the Public Security Act and the Tokkō secret police , socialist and communist views came under considerable pressure. Kobayashi Takiji died in the Tsukiji Police Station on February 20, 1933, and as the Communist Party members, one by one , revoked their views through Tenkō , workers' literature gradually declined. The Rōgei had already been dissolved in 1932, and in February 1934 the NARP also announced its dissolution, which meant the end of the proletarian literary movement.

Successor: Democratic Literature

While the individual writers reacted differently, for example by giving up proletarian literature like Hayashi Fusao , with a clarification of the will to the Tenkō like Nakano Shigeharu or with the continuation of social reform like Miyamoto Yuriko , they all dealt with the war time. But as the war unfolded on a large scale, it became impossible to publish works that were critical of the zeitgeist. Many people who thought about themselves in this way and clung to the proletarian literary movement after the war wanted again a literature that would observe the progress of society, which became a pillar of the democratic literary movement . So after the war they founded the New Japan Literary Society .

About the name

Incidentally, proletarian is a word that refers to the class of wage workers and the dispossessed. Hence, proletarian literature would be something that can translate into the literature of the workers, but in Japan reference has been made to literature written from the revolutionary socialist or communist point of view, and the stratum from which the author came was not made the subject as with Nakano Shigeharu, who had graduated from Tokyo University , whose father belonged to the intellectual class and who was recognized as a pillar of proletarian literature.

(In other countries, such works have been called revolutionary literature.) But because of pre-war pressure on publications, it was not possible to use words like "revolution" in this way.

The term revolutionary literature could not be used in the post-war period because freedom of expression was restricted by the occupying forces (Kuroshima Denji's Busōseru Shigai (Militarized Roads) was banned by the GHQ ), only when it was allowed to be used afterwards in the The series Sekai Kakumei Bungaku-Sen (selection of revolutionary literature from around the world) was also published in the 1960s .

Magazines, authors and alliances

Proletarian magazines

Proletarian writers and critics

Proletarian literary alliances

See also

literature

  • Hilaria Gössmann: Women in Japanese Literature. Sata Ineko and her work from 1920 to 1970 . Studienverlag Brockmeyer, Bochum 1985, 17-21.
  • Hilaria Gössmann: Writing as Liberation. Autobiographical novels and short stories by women authors of the Proletarian Literature Movement of Japan . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1996, (Iaponia Insula Volume 4), 58-65.
  • Roland Schneider: Proletarian Literature . In: Horst Hammitzsch (Ed.): Japan-Handbuch . Franz Steiner Verlag, Wiesbaden 1981, ISBN 3-515-02952-4 , pp. 1059-1064.
  • Yoshio Iwamoto: Aspects of the Proletarian Literary Movement in Japan . In: Bernard S. Silbermann and HD Harootunian (eds.): Japan in Crisis. Essays on Taishō Democracy . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1974, ISBN 0-691-03094-4 , pp. 156-182.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Odagiri Hideo: Zadankai Shōwa Bungakushi ( Symposium on Shōwa literary history ), Shūeisha.