An important figure in contemporary Japanese literature, Kobo Abe (1924-1993) attracted an international audience for novels in which he explored the nihilism and loss of identity experienced by many ...
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For almost forty years until his death in 1993, Abe Kb occupied a central position among avant-garde artists in Japan. Active as a novelist, a writer of film scenarios, a dramatist, and a director of ...
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Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann
[In The Woman in the Dunes, a man comes to a] village, each of whose houses is set in a deep pit in the dunes to protect it from the weather. He stays overnight in...
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Critical Essay by Earl Miner
The story of an unprepossessing schoolteacher captured on an insect-hunting excursion and subjected to slavery would seem merely bizarre if it were not treated in a meani...
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In the following essay, Dissanayake lists the reasons for the success of the cinematic adaptation of Abé's novel The Woman in the Dunes.
The change in the sand corresponded to a chang...
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Kobo Abe
Kobo Abe
Critical Essay by Stanley Kauffmann
