Yumiko KURAHASHI--An Intersection of Illusion and Intelligence in Postwar Japanese Literature, 1950s-1970s

Yumiko KURAHASHI--An Intersection of Illusion and Intelligence in Postwar Japanese Literature, 1950s-1970s
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Japan was at a major turning point, a period of simultaneous postwar democratic upheaval and rapid economic growth, when the failure of the 1960 Security Treaty weakened the centripetal force of leftist ideology and a value vacuum spread throughout society. Yumiko Kurahashi emerged amidst these unstable conditions and created a unique literary world that combined fantasy and intellectual criticism. Against the backdrop of social changes such as rapid urbanization and the shaking of the traditional view of the family, she sharply depicted the problems of the female subject and power structure with allegorical expressions. Her representative work "Partai" is highly regarded as a metaphorical critique of the oppressiveness lurking within the Communist Party and leftist intellectuals, and as a symbol of the limits of postwar thought. In addition, the themes of domination and subjugation, and the fluctuation and rebirth of the subject, reflect the exis
tential anxiety of the postwar Japanese people. Kurahashi's fantasy was not an escape from reality, but functioned as a critical device to illuminate the distortions of reality, opening up new possibilities for Japanese literature.