Shock and Naturalization in Contemporary Japanese Literature

This book introduces the concepts of naturalization and naturalized modernity and uses them as tools for understanding the way modernity has been experienced and portrayed in Japanese literature since the end of World War II. Special emphasis is given to four Japanese writers: Kawabata Yasunari, Abe KEbE, Murakami Haruki, and Murakami RyE+. Notions of shock in modern city life, exemplified by the writings of Walter Benjamin and Georg Simmel, whilst present in the work of older Japanese writers, do not appear to hold true in much contemporary Japanese literature, as if the shock impact of change has evolved as a naturalized or Japanized process. The author focuses on the implications of this observation both regarding the theory of modernity and as an opportunity to reevaluate the works of Kawabata et al.