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Hirabayashi Taiko: Issues of Subjectivity in Japanese Women’s Autobiography in Fiction

Ondrake, Laura Katherine
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250261685

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, East Asian Languages and Literatures.
Hirabayashi Taiko (1905-1972) has often been viewed as a feminist and proletarian writer. However, especially in her early writing, Hirabayashi’s works, while certainly containing aspects that are critical of society, also address aspects that are seemingly quite personal, subjective, and less ideological in scope and nature. In examining her earlier works, a reader can see that certain events in Hirabayashi’s life have affected her writing profoundly, such as the loss of her child shortly after childbirth. From an unorthodox perspective, Hirabayashi’s early works can be seen as autobiographical fiction, albeit fiction in which the personal and political will are indistinguishable.This thesis will examine Hirabayashi’s early works and their interpretive possibilities as they relate to the literary genres of shi-shōsetsu, autobiographical fiction, and the proletarian novel, specifically within the context of a woman writer. Hirabayashi’s early works present a new type of ‘proletarian personal novel,’ a novel that is strikingly embodied with raw detail, even to the point of grotesqueness. She provides a rare sexuality and power in her writings for a woman of her time. This thesis agrees with Linda Flores’s “Reading the Maternal Body in the Works of Hirabayashi Taiko” in several aspects, but disagrees that Hirabayashi’s works simply manifest left-wing and feminist ideology through female embodiment.
Richard Torrance (Advisor)
Naomi Fukumori (Committee Member)
72 p.
Literature
Hirabayashi Taiko; autobiographical fiction

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ondrake, L. K. (2009). Hirabayashi Taiko: Issues of Subjectivity in Japanese Women’s Autobiography in Fiction [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250261685

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ondrake, Laura. Hirabayashi Taiko: Issues of Subjectivity in Japanese Women’s Autobiography in Fiction. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250261685.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ondrake, Laura. "Hirabayashi Taiko: Issues of Subjectivity in Japanese Women’s Autobiography in Fiction." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250261685

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.