Lexington Books
Pages: 220
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9¼
978-0-7391-8102-7 • Hardback • January 2014 • $120.00 • (£92.00)
978-0-7391-8103-4 • Paperback • January 2014 • $57.99 • (£45.00)
978-0-7391-8104-1 • eBook • January 2014 • $55.00 • (£42.00)
Nanyan Guois associate professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies in Kyoto, Japan. She has published eight books including, Japan’s Wartime Medical Atrocities (2010), and Tsugaru: Regional Identity on Japan’s Northern Periphery.
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Nurturing of Shiga’s Feelings for Nature
Chapter 2: The Moon: Early Encounters with Nature
Chapter 3: The Sun: In Pursuit of a Religiosity of Art
Chapter 4: Nature Destroyed: The Ashio Copper Mine PollutionIncident
Chapter 5: Plants: The Essence of Nature
Chapter 6: Living Creatures: Mirrors of Human Nature
Chapter 7: The Supernatural and Nature
Chapter 8: Dreams: Nature Internalized
Chapter 9: Lafcadio Hearn’s Influence on Shiga’s Literary Style
Conclusion: Nature-Inspired Art and Artistic Nature
Appendix 1: Chronology of Shiga Naoya’s Life and Art
Appendix 2: Map with Important Places in Shiga’s Literature
Guo's study will remain a crucial contribution to such reception as exists by its focus on Shiga's deep love of nature.
— Monumenta Nipponica
Nanyang Guo, thoroughly familiar with Shiga Naoya’s writings, offers a new view of this very ‘Japanese’ writer. She goes beyond the ‘I-novel’ paradigm by taking us on a journey through his understanding of natural phenomena as a key to the psychology of living beings and situations. Guo aptly delineates Shiga’s “subjective realism” as a key to his art.
— Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Freie Universität Berlin