The thesis examines the problem of evil in the works of the Japanese writer Endo Shusaku (1923-1996). The duality within the title of the thesis - "the problem of evil" and "between reading and writing': - aims at indicating the processual character of the writer's approach to this issue at different stages of his literary activity. The investigative perspective adopted in this thesis was conditioned both by the topic itself (evil) and by the distinctive character of the materials that constitute the object of the study: essays and critical texts written between 1947 and 1985, and Endo's last novel, Deep River (1993). The confrontation between non:"fictional texts and the fictional one demonstrates constant reoccurrence of the problem of evil within Endo's horizon of experience; his essays and critical works register the process of reading on evil whereas his fiction reflects specific ways of transforming this experience of reading into writing. The texts chosen for the analysis reveal another important motif of End6's writing - his encounter with the Western world, in particular with the French literature and thought. The problem of evil in End6's literature is situated within Paul Ricoeur's hermeneutics and selected concepts that are contained in his interpretive project (symbol, cogito, distance, meaning, reference, and mimesis). Following Ricoeur, the problem of evil is subject to analysis on three levels: the semantic, the reflective and the existential, which, consequently, leads to capturing various forms of manifestations of evil depicted by End6. In accordance with Ricoeur's narrative theory, the thesis accentuates the subjectivity of End6, his identity as the reader and the writer.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:634527 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Kasza, Justyna Weronika |
| Publisher | University of Leeds |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0017 seconds