Mother-Tongue in Modern Japanese Literature and Criticism (Toward a New Polylingual Poetics)

This book examines how early research on literary activities outside national literatures such as émigré literature or diasporic literature conceived of the loss of ‘mother-tongue” as a tragedy, and how it perpetuated the ideology of national language by relying on the dichotomy of native language/foreign language. It transcends these limitations by examining modern Japanese literature and literary criticism through modern philology, the vernacularization movement, and Korean-Japanese literature. Through the insights of recent philosophical/linguistic theories, it reveals the political problems of the notion of “mother-tongue” in literary and linguistic theories and proposes strategies to realize genuinely “exophonic” and “translational” literature beyond the confines of nation. Examining the notion of “mother-tongue” in literature and literary criticism, the author deconstructs the concept and language itself as an apparatus of nation-state in order to imagine alternative literature, genuinely creolized and heterogeneous. Offering a comparative, transnational perspective on the significance of the mother tongue in contemporary literatures, this is a key read for students of modern Japanese literature, language and culture, as well as those interested in theories of translation and bilingualism. This book examines how early research on literary activities outside national literatures such as émigré literature or diasporic literature conceived of the loss of "mother-tongue" as a tragedy, and how it perpetuated the ideology of national language by relying on the dichotomy of native language/foreign language. It transcends these limitations by examining modern Japanese literature and literary criticism through modern philology, the vernacularization movement, and Korean-Japanese literature. Through the insights of recent philosophical/linguistic theories, it reveals the political problems of the notion of "mother-tongue" in literary and linguistic theories and proposes strategies to realize genuinely "exophonic" and "translational" literature beyond the confines of nation. Examining the notion of "mother-tongue" in literature and literary criticism, the author deconstructs the concept and language itself as an apparatus of nation-state in order to imagine alternative literature, genuinely creolized and heterogeneous. Offering a comparative, transnational perspective on the significance of the mother tongue in contemporary literature, this is a key read for students of modern Japanese literature, language and culture, as well as those interested in theories of translation and bilingualism--back cover Front Matter ....Pages i-xv Introduction: Theoretical Presumptions and Comparative Perspective (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 1-27 “Mother-Tongue” and the Formulation of the National Language in Meiji Linguistics (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 29-53 Gembun-itchi Movement: The Creation of a Linguistic State Apparatus (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 55-78 Korean-Japanese Writers and the Redefinition of Bokoku-go (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 79-99 Dialectal Literature as Bilingual Literature (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 101-114 Contemporary Bilingual/Exophonic Writers and Their Politics (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 115-136 Deconstructing Language as a Ground for Mother-Tongue (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 137-160 Conclusion (Takayuki Yokota-Murakami)....Pages 161-167 Back Matter ....Pages 169-183 This book examines how early research on literary activities outside national literatures such as emigre literature or diasporic literature conceived of the loss of 'mother-tongue" as a tragedy, and how it perpetuated the ideology of national language by relying on the dichotomy of native language/foreign language.