Between Sand and Labyrinth Kimibo Abe and the Experimental Spirit of Postwar Japan: From the 1950s to the 1960s

Between Sand and Labyrinth Kimibo Abe and the Experimental Spirit of Postwar Japan: From the 1950s to the 1960s

Kimibo Abe's literature depicted the collapse and reorganization of values in postwar Japanese society with an experimental and unflinching perspective. From the 1950s to the 1960s, Japan moved toward reconstruction and rapid economic growth, but behind the scenes, individuals lost their ideals and communities, and lost sight of the grounds for their existence. While starting out as a leftist intellectual, Abe realized early on the danger of ideology abstracting human beings, and expressed human isolation through absurd situations and anonymous figures. Spaces such as dunes, boxes, and mazes function as allegories of social devices that confine people, bringing to light the shadows of a growing society. By expanding his activities into theater and film, Abe's attempt to question the institution of literature itself shows the core of postwar literature, which relentlessly depicted the human condition after the loss of meaning without showing any redemption.