On the evolution of the native writer : articulating national culture in Tanizaki's fiction.

Abstract

This thesis seeks to explore the extent to which a conversation between Frantz

Fanon’s three-tiered paradigm on the evolution of the native writer – as manifested in his

position on national culture in The Wretched of the Earth – and Tanizaki Junichiro’s literary

trajectory successfully articulates the cultural implications of Japan’s negotiations with the

West.

Tanizaki Junichiro (1886–1965) lived through a period of Japanese history that

witnessed the beginnings of Japan’s modernisation in the Meiji era (1868–1912), the nation’s

subsequent evolving relationship with the West, two world wars, and a rapidly recovering

post-war Japan attempting to secure a position as a global economic powerhouse. This

turbulent historical landscape, and the continually evolving cultural context it engenders,

informs Tanizaki’s literary trajectory as his works experience shifts in their perspectives and

presentations of Japan in relation to the West.