Novel

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Japan

In Japan, politics also had a strong influence on the novel, which gained popularity in the 20th century. Autobiographical fiction was an early trend, with works such as Futon (1907; translated 1978) by Tayama Katai, about a writer who lusts after a female student. Other novelists, such as Tanizaki Junichirō, felt that this sort of confessional work lacked imagination and wrote about broader issues. In Tade kuu mushi (1929; Some Prefer Nettles, 1955), Tanizaki set an unhappy marriage against the backdrop of changing cultural values in Japan.

In midcentury, works inspired by Marxism included Kanikosen (1929; The Cannery Boat, 1933) by Kobayashi Takiji, which describes the abuses suffered by workers aboard a floating crab cannery. Many Marxist writers were forced to abandon their Communist ideals during World War II, creating a new literary form—tenko, or recantation, literature. After the war ended, politically committed writing made a resurgence with authors such as Noma Hiroshi, Haniya Yūtaka, and Shiina Rinzō. These writers grappled with the meaning of concepts such as freedom and individuality.

Another prominent 20th-century Japanese author was Mishima Yukio. He made his mark on the literary world with Kamen no kokuhaku (1949; Confessions of a Mask, 1958), in which a young man dissects the thoughts and emotions he experienced as he became aware of his homosexuality. In 1968 Kawabata Yasunari became the first Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature. His masterpiece Yukiguni (1948; Snow Country, 1956) tells the story of an ill-fated love affair. The best-known work by Ōe Kenzaburō is Man'en gannen no futtoboru (1967; The Silent Cry, 1974), about two brothers who return to the village where they grow up. In 1994 Ōe became the second Japanese writer to win the Nobel Prize for literature.

See also Japanese Literature.

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Australia and New Zealand

Australia’s novel tradition began in the mid-1800s but did not gain strength until the early 1900s. Two of the most important early novels were For the Term of His Natural Life (1874) by Marcus Clarke, an account of a convict settlement in Tasmania, and Robbery Under Arms (1888) by Rolf Boldrewood, a story of bushrangers and outback settlers. In the early 20th century major novels included My Brilliant Career (1901) by Miles Franklin, about life on the outback and the beginning of a female writer’s career, and Such Is Life (1903) by Tom Collins, about country life in the state of Victoria.

Other important novelists were Henry Handel Richardson, author of the trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917-1929), a series of works on the social life of immigrants; Katherine Susannah Prichard, whose Coonardoo (1929) studies the relationship between an aboriginal woman and a white man; Louis Stone, whose Jonah (1911) is a moving study of the poor; and Patrick White, author of Happy Valley (1939), The Tree of Man (1955), The Twyborn Affair (1979), and many other books. White’s works deal with the individual’s search for meaning in a harsh, potentially brutal country searching for its own self-definition. He claimed the Nobel Prize in literature in 1973. Other outstanding Australian novelists include Christina Stead (The Man Who Loved Children, 1940), Thomas Keneally (Schindler’s Ark, 1982), and Peter Carey (Oscar and Lucinda, 1988).

Two of the earliest novels written and published in New Zealand were Taranaki: A Tale of the War (1861) by Henry Butler Stoney and The Story of Wild Will Enderby (1873) by Vincent Pike. Novelists of greater importance are Jane Mander, whose novel The Story of a New Zealand River (1920) is a sensitive portrayal of life in an lumber-milling community; Jean Devanny, who wrote socialist-humanitarian novels such as The Butcher Shop (1926); Robin Hyde, who dramatized the aftermath of World War I (1914-1918) in Passport to Hell (1936) and Nor the Years Condemn (1938); and John Mulgan, whose Man Alone (1939) shows the stylistic influence of American author Ernest Hemingway.

After World War II (1945-1939), Janet Frame published Owls Do Cry (1957), about a single family in a small New Zealand town. Ian Cross explored the state of mind of a 13-year-old who relives a family tragedy in The God Boy (1957) and examined relationships in After Anzac Day (1961). Sylvia Ashton-Warner used her books to relate the exploration of the self and mind, as well as the search for meaning and values. Her works include Spinster (1958) and Incense to Idols (1960). New Zealand’s other prominent novelists include Keri Hulme (The Bone People, 1983), Witi Ihimaera (The Matriarch, 1986), and Maurice Gee (Live Bodies, 1998).

See also Australian Literature.

VII

Future of the Novel

At the beginning of the 21st century, the novel, one of the most flexible of literary forms, remains a powerful way for authors to represent the human experience both on the individual level and on the societal level. In countries all over the world, writers use the novel to give insight into people’s actions, ideas, and aspirations. Novelists keep the form fresh by continuing to explore subject matter of vital interest to readers and by constantly innovating in form and technique. For five centuries the novel has been one of the most important ways for writers to comment on the human condition, and it shows no signs of weakening.

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