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.

The subject of this dissertation is funeral rites in the Murasaki Shikibu's novel, The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari). The analysis of the text seeks to explore the author's depiction of the end of life, the afterlife, communication with spirits or souls of dead and to summarize the notes and descriptions of the proceedings of funeral rituals including 'before burial' and memorial ceremonies. The purpose of this dissertation is to create an overview of funeral rituals and ideas of death described in the text of Genji Monogatari. The Tale of Genji is considered a document which reflects contemporary thinking and can therefore be relied on for a study of funeral and memorial rituals. The main method used to develop the topic is a detailed analysis of theoretical, practical and aesthetic aspects of death described in the Genji Monogatari novel. The ideas of the Heian Court about death and the afterlife were mainly affecting the cult of ancestors, Shinto, Taoism, Buddhism and Shamanism, which also participated in the creation of the funeral cult. Ideas of the afterlife were also very diverse. The world of the living and the world of the dead, in the concept of old Japanese, were not strictly divided and spirits had access to all spheres of life. Communication with spirits of the living and the souls...

O estudo de obras clássicas literárias japonesas do gênero zuihitsu é um desafio para pesquisadores no Brasil, pois, além das dificuldades trazidas pelas diferenças entre as línguas, incorre em novas conceituações de modalidade de escritos. Apesar de ser considerado em geral como equivalente ao ensaio ocidental, é possível observar divergências que indicam uma necessidade de adequar o olhar crítico ao gênero oriental. Para isso, foram abordadas questões concernentes às definições de gênero literário no ocidente através de um apanhado histórico da crítica, levando em conta a etimologia do termo; e algumas considerações a respeito do caráter linguístico dos conceitos conforme a teoria de Wittgenstein. Em seguida, pretendeu-se esquematizar as abordagens do ensaio enquanto gênero, remontando sua história, através de passagens dos Ensaios de Montaigne, de alguns textos de Bacon, Hume e Adorno, entre outros ensaístas e críticos que versam sobre o assunto, de maneira a delinear características próprias dessa categoria ocidental. Além disso, examinamos, a partir de suas formulações e de sua recepção, a possibilidade de se encontrar uma tradição também no Brasil. Posteriormente, buscamos mapear as origens do zuihitsu em paralelo com as do ensaio. E, então, analisamos alguns textos de Makura no Sôshi em comparação a outros de Tsurezuregusa , duas das três obras consideradas basilares e essenciais à compreensão do gênero japonês. Essa análise comparativa foi feita tendo por base principalmente a presença de certos temas em comum, como a motivação da escrita, certas considerações sobre as quatro estações, sobre os momentos de ócio ou, ainda, sobre os monges. Nosso intuito foi trazer à tona semelhanças e diferenças entre as obras de modo a elucidar características do gênero que o aproximam ou o distanciam dos ensaios e de outros gêneros ocidentais, na esperança de que isso nos levasse à adequação do olhar supramencionada. E, por fim, foi realizado um fechamento a partir de considerações a respeito dos gêneros ocidentais e do ensaio, do zuihitsu e do cotejo das obras clássicas japonesas, que nos leve à conceituação desse gênero japonês. / The study of classic Japanese literatures genre zuihitsu is a challenge for scholars in Brazil, because besides the difficulties about languages differences, it incurs in a new conceptualizations of written genres. Although some scholars consider it as equivalent to Western essays, it is possible to observe some disparitys that indicate a need to adjust our critical view to the Eastern genre. In order to achieve that goal, we had approached some questions about Western genres definitions through a historical and literary overviews, as well as we had taken into consideration the terms etymology, and referred some ponderations about the linguistic character following some of the Wittgenstein theory concepts. After that, we intended to outline a scheme of essays as a literary genre, retracing its history, through passages of Montaigne\'s Essays, of some texts from Bacon, Hume and Adorno, among others essayists and critics that deal with the subject, in order to delineate its characteristics. More than that, we have examined, from its formulations and its reception, the possibility of finding also such a tradition in Brazil. Subsequently, we have seek mapping zuihitsu origins in confrontation to the essays ones. In addition, thereafters, we have analysed some texts from Makura no sôshi and compared them to others from Tsurezuregusa, two of the three masterpieces which are considered basic and essential to understanding the Japanese genre. This comparative analysis was done by means of their common themes, such as the written motivations, some considerations of four seasons, moments in idleness or even monks. Our aim was to bring out similarities and differences between them to elucidate genre characteristics that bring them nearer or make them apart of essays, hoping that this would lead us doing some adjustments of our critical view. Finally we have finalized this dissertation by referring some considerations on the Western genre, the essays, the zuihitsu, and the comparison of Japanese classical pieces, which lead us to conceptualyze the Japanese genre.

(in English) This thesis deals with space in Japanese science fiction literature in 1960s. The aim is to find out specificity of japanese space in works with apocalyptic endings. Theoretical part deals with concept of possible worlds, various approaches to space and above all with theory of fictional worlds, which I use as main methodology of this thesis. Practical part is topoanalysis and comparison of three selected literary works: Inter Ice Age 4 (Dai yon kanpyōki 第四間氷期, 1959) by Abe Kōbō 安部公房 (1924-1993), Ten Billion Days and One Hundred Billion Nights (Hyaku oku no hiru to sen oku no yoru百億の昼と千億の夜, 1967) by Mitsuse Ryū 光瀬竜 (1928-1999) and Japan Sinks (Nihon chinbotsu 日本沈没) by Komatsu Sakyō 小松左京 (1931-2011). In topoanalysis I focus primarily on island position of Japan and role of the ocean.

This thesis deals with popular paraphrases of classical Japanese literature in the Edo period (1600- 1868). It analyses creative rewritings of a famous Heian tale Genji monogatari by popular authors of the Edo period, primarily Nise Murasaki inaka Genji by Ryūtei Tanehiko (1783-1842), which is one of the most successful works of Japanese early modern literature. The aim of this thesis is, utilizing elements of narrative analysis, to identify and interpret creative strategies applied by Tanehiko and his predecessors (Kogame Masuhide, Miyako no Nishiki and Okumura Masanobu) in works based on Genji monogatari and to find out what the relation was between their works and their Heian model, and if and to what extent Tanehiko's work was a unique occurrence between popular paraphrases of classical Japanese literature.

Dazai Osamu (born Tsushima Shûji) was a post-WWII writer who wrote a number of works using a female narrator. This thesis research focused on the reasons as to why Dazai may have written using female narratives, taking into consideration the time period and social milieu in which he was writing, as well as his own personal history with women. In addition, the history of male authors utilizing female narratives was explored, as well as the ideas of gender in the Japanese arts. Dazai works were also compared with Tankizaki Junichirô's to see how the roles of women in their works differ. The four main Dazai works analyzed were "Magic Lanterns" ("Tôrô"), "The Schoolgirl" ("Joseito"), "December 8th" ("Jûnigatsu yôka"), and "Villon's Wife" ("Biyon no tsuma"). The conclusion was that Dazai was using female narrators as a different approach to further critiquing himself, with the female narrator being used to critique a Dazai-like persona in the works.

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The images of Japanese women in the Japanese contemporary literature (1935-1975) — Short-stories crowned with the Akutagawa Prize<p><p>\ / Doctorat en sciences sociales, Orientation sociologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This master's thesis focuses on the issue of food in some selected works by Kawakami Hiromi (born 1958). At first, it attempts to express some characteristic features of modern Japanese cuisine in general, which are closely connected to the creation of the concept of national identity, and to give a summary of works of modern and contemporary Japanese literature in which the topic of food is present. Next, it describes the work of Kawakami Hiromi. After introducing the author's main masterpieces and its typical features, it comes to the interpretation of the selected texts which were published within 1998 and 2010. It interprets the works mainly from the thematic point of view and it attempts to determine connections in which the issue and motifs of food appear. It also studies what role is played by food, eating or cooking in Kawakami's work. In selected translated passages it makes an effort to give evidence of certain elements in her work such as: food as means of befriendment, motif of a skilled male cook, inability to cook, which leads to a conflict in a relationship etc. It compares works in which often appear lonely women protagonists longing for love and in which the real world meets the supernatural or the traditional elements meet the modern ones. In order to point out other connections...