| The South that is not in the South ：The Fate of Chihei Nakamura’s “Southern Literature” |
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| Uenia JUAN |
| Associate Professor of Soochow University |
南方にあらざる南方―中村地平の｢南方文学｣の行方 |
| 阮文雅 |
| 東呉大学外国語文学院日本語文学系副教授 |
Correspondence
Uenia JUAN ,Email: wenya@gm.scu.edu.tw
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Published online: 30 December 2024. |
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Copyright ©2024 The Global Institute for Japanese Studies, Korea University |
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This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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| ABSTRACT |
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In 2024, the centennial celebration of Miyazaki City’s incorporation brought attention to a documentary film on Chihei Nakamura, an influential writer in the prewar Showa literary scene. Nakamura (1908–1963), a native of Miyazaki, was twice nominated for the Akutagawa Prize, renowned as a proponent of “Southern Literature”. His idealistic vision fused the optimistic ethos of southern Kyushu with the complex historical and colonial contexts of Taiwan. During the war, Nakamura was conscripted to the Singapore and Malaysia, an experience that profoundly affected him. Consequently, wartime experiences disrupted his literary aspirations, leading to his withdrawal from the literary mainstream and a shift toward cultural and economic contributions in his hometown.
Nakamura’s later work, particularly “The Old Pond in the Mountains”, reflects his struggles with postwar disillusionment and self-reproach, symbolized through the mythical figure of a kappa. Despite its eventual decline, Nakamura’s “Southern Literature” expanded the boundaries of Japanese literature by exploring marginalized voices and the nuanced interplay of idealism and realism. |
Keywords:
Chihei Nakamura, Southern Literature, Wushe Accident, Enlisted Writers in the South, The Old Pond in the Mountains
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| キ―ワ―ド:
中村地平, 南方文学, 霧社事件, 南方徴用作家, 山の中の古い池 |
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