This report examines how twentieth-century Japanese “artists” – Kafū Nagai, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, and Kurosawa Akira – applied characters and/or principles of nineteenth-century artists active in France to their works. Specifically, I study the influences of Emile Zola, Paul Cézanne, and Vincent van Gogh. The first chapter examines the way that Kafū adopted Zola’s Nana (1880) in his own novel, Rivalry (1918), arguing that Nana provided Kafū with a vocabulary to express anxieties about Japan’s future. Comparing social conditions in late nineteenth-century France to those in early twentieth-century Japan, the chapter explains how Kafū feared that the debauched world in Nana would be Japan’s new destination. My second chapter moves away from Kafū and Zola, examining, instead, how Akutagawa applies Cézanne’s notions of subjectivity in his Japanese short story, “In a Grove” (1922). Specifically, I argue that Akutagawa and Cézanne both conceive reality as dependent of, and inevitably attached to, subjective truth. My third and final chapter, shifting to a focus on film, examines the way that Kurosawa uses van Gogh’s character to express frustrations about society’s neglect of nature, as well as about his own creative passions as an artist. Through the different mediums discussed in the report – novel, short story, painting, and film – I show that nineteenth-century French influence in twentieth-century Japan was not small in scope, concluding that the great influences merit further study, particularly since Franco-Japanese influences continue visibly today. / text

viii, 111 p. : ill. (some col.) / During the early stage of Japan's High Economic Growth Period (1955-1970), a group of directors and films, labeled the Japanese New Wave, emerged to strong critical acclaim and scholarly pursuit. Over time, Japanese New Wave Cinema has come to occupy a central position within the narrative history of Japanese film studies. This position has helped introduce many significant films while inadvertently ostracizing or ignoring the much broader landscape of film at this time. This thesis seeks to complexify the New Wave's central position through the career of Daiei Studios' director, Masumura Yasuzo. Masumura signifies a "space in-between" the cultural elite represented by the New Wave and the box office focus of mass culture cinema. Utilizing available English language and rare Japanese sources, this thesis will re-examine Masumura's position on the periphery of film studies while highlighting the larger film environment of this dynamic period. / Committee in charge: Prof. Steven Brown, Chair; Dr. Daisuke Miyao, Advisor

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My area of research is Modern Japanese Literature and Film, and my thesis examines the collaborations between the writer Abe Kôbô and filmmaker Teshigahara Hiroshi, two artists who addressed the themes of identity and alienation in modern society through their work together. Specifically, I focus on the process of adaptation, looking at how the themes from the original texts are approached and captured cinematically. Such a study will allow me to explore the relationship between the two media, the differences in the presentation of theme and the possibilities of translation. The collaborations between Abe and Teshigahara offer a rare opportunity to conduct a survey on a specific pair of writer and director over the course of several works, tracking the evolution of their artistic vision and practice. What I hope to achieve through this project is to situate film adaptation as a valuable branch in the study of narrative, demonstrating its exciting possibilities in providing a discourse on the re-imagining of words through images.

My area of research is Modern Japanese Literature and Film, and my thesis examines the collaborations between the writer Abe Kôbô and filmmaker Teshigahara Hiroshi, two artists who addressed the themes of identity and alienation in modern society through their work together. Specifically, I focus on the process of adaptation, looking at how the themes from the original texts are approached and captured cinematically. Such a study will allow me to explore the relationship between the two media, the differences in the presentation of theme and the possibilities of translation. The collaborations between Abe and Teshigahara offer a rare opportunity to conduct a survey on a specific pair of writer and director over the course of several works, tracking the evolution of their artistic vision and practice. What I hope to achieve through this project is to situate film adaptation as a valuable branch in the study of narrative, demonstrating its exciting possibilities in providing a discourse on the re-imagining of words through images.

Au début des années 1950, le cinéma japonais achève de se remettre des restrictions d'abord imposées par le régime militariste, puis entraînées par la défaite du pays. L'industrie cinématographique prospère rapidement et puise dans la littérature des histoires pour les films qu'elle doit produire à une cadence toujours plus élevée afin de répondre à la demande des salles de cinéma. C'est dans ce contexte que Naruse Mikio (1905-1969) a réalisé six films inspirés de textes de Hayashi Fumiko (1903-1951). Ces films sont représentatifs tout à la fois des relations que les institutions littéraires et cinématographiques entretenaient à l'époque où les films ont été réalisés, du rôle joué par la littérature dans la politique de production des studios de cinéma et de la façon dont l’adaptation était perçue par la critique de cinéma.Mais outre la présentation de ces aspects contextuels et historiques, l'objectif de cette thèse est de dégager des pistes qui aideraient à appréhender l'œuvre de Naruse Mikio à travers l'examen des choix qu'il opère lors du processus d'adaptation, que ce soit au niveau du sujet, de la construction du récit, ou encore de la mise en scène. Naruse parvient à trouver un équilibre entre ses ambitions formelles et les exigences du récit en élaborant avec virtuosité un style effacé ou « invisible ». Pour tenter d'en faire ressortir les particularités, notre effort s'est concentré sur l'analyse des éléments de notre corpus (films, textes et scénarios). Dans cette entreprise, les textes de Hayashi constituent un référent précieux qui aide à déterminer les rapports que le cinéaste entretient avec son sujet, avec le scénario ou encore avec les contraintes inhérentes au cadre dans lequel il travaille. / In the early fifties, the Japanese film industry had almost recovered from the restrictions imposed first by the military regime and then from Japan’s defeat in the Pacific War. The industry then prospered rapidly and found in literature the stories needed in order to produce enough movies to comply to the always growing demand of the cinemas. It was in this context that Naruse (1905-1969) realized six movies inspired by Hayashi Fumiko's (1903-1951) works. These movies are exemplary of the relationship between literary institutions and the film industry at the time they were shot. They are also typical of the importance of literature in the production policy of the diverse film studios as well as the manner movie critics received these screen adaptations.Besides the presentation of the contextual and historical aspects, our objective is to identify ways which would help to discover Naruse Mikio's works through the filter of choices made by him at the time of the adaptation, be it when choosing the topic, the story construction or the stage direction. Naruse was able to find a balance between his formal ambitions and the requirements of the story by skillfully elaborating a subdued or “invisible” style. In order to highlight the singularities of his personal style, we have concentrated our effort on the analysis of the diverse elements of our corpus: the films, texts and scripts. In this endeavour Hayashi’s writings are a precious point of reference helping us to determine the precise nature of the relationship the film director had with his subject, with the script as well as the constraints imposed by the frame he was working in.