Japanese literature genre - a confessional, stories depicting events from author’s life More personal and emotional than autobiographies Blurs line between narrator and author
History
Intellectual exchange starting again through Meiji restoration after period of isolation under Tokugawa shogunate. Shoyu Tsubochi, a scholar and proponent of Western ideas, heralded fiction as a valuable genre providing insight into characterization and interiority, which he thought lacking in Edo literature. In the late 1800s after Meiji Constitution emphasized divine power of the emperor, scholars turned towards individualism and I-Novels were a form of resistance through which the author could express individuality. Now in the west we have autofiction. Classically could also be similar to proust
Framework
- Written from the I
- way to express hidden beliefs, desires, experiences
- Reality (jijitsu)
- Author’s experience = story in novel
- Reflection of author’s spiritual condition (inner reality more important than accuracy of facts introspection)
- Appears natural and unplanned to readers
- Sincerity (makoto)
I-Novel #japanese