Out of the alleyway: Nakagami Kenji and the poetics of outcaste fiction

2008 ◽  
Vol 45 (12) ◽  
pp. 45-6601-45-6601
Keyword(s):  
Nakagami Kenji

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Machiko Ishikawa
Keyword(s):  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Nakagami Kenji ◽  
Democratic Systems

This introductory chapter offers a brief background into the works of Nakagami Kenji (1946–1992) and how he represented the voices of the socially silenced in Japan. Notably, Nakagami belonged to the Burakumin (“outcaste”). Although he is known as a Burakumin writer, and much of his writing is indeed set in a Burakumin context, not all of his material provides representations of Burakumin life. His work further depicts the diversity of backgrounds among Buraku people, including those who, like the writer himself, received financial and economic benefits from the democratic systems introduced at the time. Given this Burakumin emphasis, the chapter briefly introduces key historical and sociopolitical aspects of that experience before embarking on an analysis of the writer's works. This analysis also includes a brief overview of the extensive corpus of Nakagami scholarship which exists in both Japanese and English.

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