Reflections on War, Guilt, and Responsibility: Aspects of Post-War German and Japanese Drama (1945-1970)

Formally, these plays range from expressionistic to absurdist, from realistic-documentary to grotesque, from satiric-demonstrative to loosely suggestive techniques. There seems to be a stronger didactic/moralizing element in the German examples than in their less direct, more ambiguous Japanese counterparts--partly as a result of the actual evidence brought forth, partly also because of adaptations of parabolic and allegoric constructions, and allusions to the morality tradition, imagery of hellish scenarios, the preponderance of trial and judgment scenes, and so forth. Although the greatest common feature of all of these plays is the urgency with which they evoke the memory of a burdensome past, and the necessity of activating the audience's conscience to rethink and take a stand on the issue of collective or personal responsibility (and on the related victim/victimizer complex), it appears that even in the face of open-ended strands on both sides, the German plays have, strategically, pushed the challenge towards individual acceptance of these burdens further than the Japanese plays--with the exception of the second part of Kinoshita's play, which goes considerably beyond the unresolved arguments as shown, for example, in Miyoshi's play.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Comparative Literature

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Harada, Hiroko

Contributors dc:contributor

• Knust, Herbert

• Literature, Germanic

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9834684

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/87306