Research On New Century Female Akutagawa Prize Winner And Their Works

Akutagawa Prize is one of the most effective pure literature awards in Japanese literary arena. It is also a wind vane for the development of Japanese modern pure literature. In its 80-year history, male authors are always the main force. However, in this 15 years of the new century, there were 16 female authors taking the prize, which takes 48.5% of total prize-winners in the same term. Such trend of intensive awards develops the situation of female authors as leaders in Japanese literary arena. The reason why female writers can frequently take the Akutagawa Prize is relevant with the freshness and the positive energy of their works, as well as their all-dimensional description of real Japanese society and true inner world and the pursuit of identity of Japanese people.The crisis of the bubble economy from 1990 s makes Japan fall into the lost ten years from the most perfect industrial society. The financial explosion in 1998 announced the collapse of Japanese group society with the transition process of all institutions into individual society. The completion of identity number in 2002 implicated the beginning of Japanese individual society. Japanese people almost had no preparation for the suddenly historical change. They felt confusing in the development of society and economy, with the crisis of losing self-value and self-importance. They strongly needed consolation and hope. Under such background, new century female authors scan and grasp the essence of social reality from several perspectives via broader viewpoints, and use their own eyes and fingersto describe social phenomena from different aspects on repellence and maturity, the cognition of sexual roles, marriage and family, workplace relationship, affiliation of love, and value pursuit. They describe the identity seeking of Japanese between the manuscript and reality.This research adopts textual close reading methodology to thoroughly understand the 16 female Akutagawa Prize recipients from 2000 to 2014 and carefully study the Japanese versions of their prize-winning works. The thesis reveal modern female authors’ cognition to human beings and their thoughts of human’s spiritual world via discussing on the main topics, language styles, and narrative features in the 16 novels. The article takes the identity seeking of female authors and their protagonists as the main thread and divides the prized works according to main themes. We try to discuss about the identity confusion, anxiety, and identity crisis which Japanese individuals is facing in order to analyze the identification questions: who I am, where I will go, my property and features, and how to realize my property and features.The research can be divided into 3 parts consist of 7 chapters.The first part mainly discusses the topic of where I am from,composed of chapter 1—self-lost in growth, and chapter 2—self-seeking in growth. This part analyzes the influence of social environment, family circumstances, and human relationship on the growth of teenagers during the process of the transition from group society to individual society via the review of Wataya Risa’s Keritai Senaka,Kanehara Hitomi’s Hebinipiasu,Nanae Aoyama’s Hitori Birori, and Akiko Akazome’s Otome no Mikkoku.Growth in Keritai Senaka is the sense of survival from identity and the maturity receiving from others’ confirmation. Growth in Hebinipiasu is descripted via body modification, expecting for establishing relationship with others and arousing others’ attention. Growth in Hitori Birori is the confessions of self-growth. Growth in Otome no Mikkokuis the process of oneself striving for the triumph over stronger others.The second part mainly discusses the topic of who I am, composed of chapter 3—the cognition of sexual roles, chapter 4—family affiliation and the fission of female role, and chapter 5—the struggle and adaption of workplace female. This part discusses the question of who I am from female authors and their protagonists and the pursuit and establishment of self-identity during the process of the transitionfrom group society to individual society via the review of Kawakami Mirieko’s Titi to Ran, Fujino Chiyo’s Natsu no Yakusoku, Kikuko Tsumura’s Potosuraimu no Fune, Dayidou Tamaki’s Syoppai Dorayibu, Fujino Kaori’s Tume to Me, and Yitoyama Akiko’s Oki de Matu.In Titi to Ran, the author reveals the cognition of female body and self-identity of herself in the individual society and her heroines by describing the knowledge and attitude towards body features like breast, ovum, and menophania. Natsu no Yakusoku reflects daily life of a group of modern Japanese such as gays and transgender people. The author tries to provide a sense of identity and existence for them from the perspective of others. Potosuraimu no Fune shows single female’s choices of marriage, in which they seek the achievement of self-identity as well as take the responsibility of their children’s future in the procedure of rushing out of the siege of marriage, self-struggling, and pursuing for happiness. Syoppai Dorayibu reflects the tenderness and warmth in the abnormal family surviving from deviating family roles and consuming their bodies, and discusses the cognition transition of female roles in marriage. Tume to Me describes the emptiness and loneliness of heart and soul aroused by distortional family combination, reveals the necessity of the transformation of Japanese women seeking from real living space to spiritual and emotional space, and predicts the distance and difficulty of Japanese housewives realizing their potential value. Oki de Matu depicts the new relationship full of original natural humanity between male and female employees in Japanese modern enterprises, as well as their worry and confusion, and their attitude of trying to make sure of their identity in the cracks of relationship.The third part mainly discusses the topic of where I will go, composed of chapter 6—femalefriendship and self-construction, and chapter 5—narrative language and self-construction. This part discusses where I will go based on the difficulty of the social transition via the review of Mariko Asabuki’s Kikotowa, Maki Kashimada’s Meido Meguri, Kuloda Natuko’s AB Sango, Yang Yi’s Tokigan Izimu Asa, Oyamada Hirouko’s Ana, and Shibasaki Tomoka’s Haru no Niwa.Kikotowa describes the love flowing in the time out of space that it doesn’t need politeness, nor communication. Such love keeps its quality with the mixture of human beings and space, reflecting modern Japanese women’s exploration on self-cognition and love. Meido Meguri depicts the figure of human beings that was and should be in modern society in via keeping the love for happiness and misfortune to pass on positive energy to readers to finish the construction of self-value and self-identification.AB Sango proceeds with the written language and establishes the attitude of female utterance in the strong sense of history and the times, and retells the process of human’s growth and maturity. Comprehensively, there is a common concentration on the general aphasia problem in new century female authors’ works. The authors start with changing the language forms and narrative strategies, utilizing the combinational language and multiple writing modes to explain their understanding of where I will go and their cognition of self-construction.When extracting and summarizing the value of post-modern humanity, relationship, and human beings, female laureates of the new century Akutagawa Prize reclaim the long-lost positive humanity via their special motherhood with tenderness and perseverance. They make unremitting endeavors for the establishment of a new modern ethics and value system. In their novels utilizing new cognition, new life attitudes, and new ethics and morals, the authors reflect the common thoughts of seeking for the sense of belonging, and they also explain the profound cultural meanings of returning consciousness and origin...