The Battlefield of Criticism: Kobayashi Hideo and Modern Japan's Sense of Self

The Battlefield of Criticism: Kobayashi Hideo and Modern Japan's Sense of Self
Kobayashi Hideo's criticism went beyond the evaluation of literary works to shape the very framework of modern Japanese thinking about how they perceive the world and themselves. He avoided theoretical explanations and focused on the inner workings of his art. He avoided theoretical explanations, but instead entered into the interior of his works and critiqued them as if to re-live their inevitability. During the war, he never criticized the state or the war head-on, but he refused to rationalize or morally judge history, and he accepted what he did not understand as he did not understand it. His unique persistence lies in the fact that he did not change his way of speaking even after the defeat of the war, and did not easily fall back on the language of democracy and progress. For Kobayashi Hideo, criticism is not an act of presenting the correct answer, but rather an endless battlefield where the individual continues to test his or her sense of self alone in the midst of th
e times.