Gender Is Fair Game: (Re)Thinking the (Fe)Male in the Works of Ōba Minako

This is a critical study of the major novels and short stories of Minako Oba (1930-) the undisputed leader in the resurgence of women writers in Japan. Oba is a postmodernist, rethinking gender and culture, encompassing the theme of female Bildungsroman, and drawing on marinated memories. This is a critical study of the major novels and short stories of Oba Minako (1930-), the undisputed leader in the resurgence of women writers in Japan. A winner of the coveted Akutagawa Prize, Oba has reclaimed a celebrated position for Japanese women writers, a legacy left by Lady Murasaki and her Heian (900-1100 A.D.) sisters.By focusing on Oba's postmodernist rethinking of gender and culture, Wilson examines the theme of female Bildungsroman. She demonstrates how Oba draws on "marinated memories, " how she recovers the past (her experiences abroad) in depictions of refreshingly articulate, sober female protagonists who capitalize on overstepping their native socio-cultural boundaries, women who "use and abuse" the system and conventions that nurture and at the same time threaten their identity.Another important point of emphasis in this study is Oba's playful and absurdist style which reinforces the appropriation of the Bildungsroman form. Oba's writing combines the artistry of a humorist/satirist, a poet, and a painter, with the subversive spirit of a shrewd cultural critic. The rhythmic dialogues and dramatic monologues that abound in her works are continually interrupted by the intrusion of an omnipresent authorial voice. Ideas and musings, sometimes lofty, sometimes verging on the absurd, merge and clash in comic, free-for-all repartee. The Lyric Mode: To Write Like A Woman -- Artist As Cultural Critic As Woman -- Becoming And (un)becoming: The Female Destiny Reconsidered -- A Mother-daughter Plot: An Unsentimental Journey Toward Reintegration -- Marinated In Memory: Conversations With Lady Murasaki -- Gender Is Fair Game: (re)thinking The (fe)male -- An Interview With Oba Minako. Michiko Niikuni Wilson. An East Gate Book. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 189-200) And Index.