Transforming desire: Power, sexuality, and the fantastic in postwar fiction by Ishikawa Jun and Enchi Fumiko

This dissertation examines how two modern Japanese writers employ the literary fantastic to show the impact of social change on sexuality and gender. In the immediate postwar fiction of Ishikawa Jun and the late 1960's writing of Enchi Fumiko, literary fantasy indicates a "desire to change givens and alter reality," as defined by Kathryn Hume. This definition indicates empowerment, but I argue also that fantasy's aspect of strangeness can also be used to convey an anxiety toward the unknown amid the chaos of a society in transition. Among other devices, Ishikawa Jun makes use of transfiguration in Catholicism, and Enchi spirit possession, to explore how sexuality is directly tied to a sense of empowerment or the loss thereof.; Late 1960's narratives by Enchi, including Yukon (Wandering Spirit, 1970) and Oni (Demon, 1972), evoke the momentous atmosphere of popular dissent against institutional (corporate and government) power, while Occupation period works by Ishikawa such as Kayoi Komachi (Visits to Komachi, 1947), and Taka (The hawk, 1953), allude to (foreign and other) political forces that have upset a familiar, "normal" existence of Japanese male centrality. Ishikawa's fantasy scrutinizes the ideological nature of power as it appears in sexuality and gender performance, while in Enchi's narratives the fantastic confronts the changing cultural constructs of family, gender roles, and erotic expression. I consider these two writers together because both are famous for featuring the fantastic and sexuality in their work, but important differences separate them: Ishikawa underscores a contemporary disempowerment of post-war men, and Enchi shows how oppressed women empower themselves. To date, there have been no studies of the socio-historical aspects of Enchi Fumiko's narratives, nor of gender and sexuality in Ishikawa Jun's work. This dissertation addresses these concerns, and highlights the role of the literary fantastic in exploring the relationship between gender and power.