Jun'ichirō Tanizaki | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 23 pages of analysis & critique of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki | Criticism

This literature criticism consists of approximately 23 pages of analysis & critique of Jun'ichirō Tanizaki.
This section contains 6,745 words
(approx. 23 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Donald Keene

SOURCE: "Tanizaki Jun'ichirō," in Dawn to the West, Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Fiction, Vol. I, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1984, pp. 720-85.

In the following excerpt, Keene provides an overview of Tanizaki's short stories.

Tanizaki's earliest writings, mainly poems in Chinese on historical subjects, appeared in the literary magazine circulated among students at his middle school. An essay published in 1902 startled his classmates by the assurance and vocabulary with which he criticized "oriental" pessimism. His insistence on joy as an essential element in human life was the first evidence of the hedonist disposition for which he would be famed. A few months later he went beyond oriental philosophy to write an essay in which he invoked the names of Dante, Carlyle, and Shakespeare in his discussion of "Moral Concepts and Aesthetic Concepts."

Tanizaki's first story appeared in the same magazine. "Shumpū Shūu Roku" ("Account of Spring...

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This section contains 6,745 words
(approx. 23 pages at 300 words per page)
Buy the Critical Essay by Donald Keene
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Critical Essay by Donald Keene from Gale. ©2005-2006 Thomson Gale, a part of the Thomson Corporation. All rights reserved.