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The poetics of renga in the selected works of Kawabata Yasunari

University of British Columbia

This thesis presents a study of Kawabata's poetics of renga, a method derived from the Japanese literary tradition. Chapter One explores the stylistic characteristics of renga sequences and their origin in the kotodama concept. In order to understand Kawabata's desire for a new narrative form, the chapter also surveys works from Classical Japanese literature which have been moved by the renga dynamics. Chapters Two through Five examine representative works from Kawabata's three creative periods. Three short stories chosen from the early period demonstrate the young writer's first encounter with the poetics of renga. They are touched by a temporal and spatial pattern of progression, a kotodama sensibility, and a visionary interest in death-life resolutions. Chapter Three and Four discuss, in particular, the pre-war, middle period masterpiece, Yukiguni, and the post-war work, Yama no oto . Both novels exemplify Kawabata's practice of writing individual episodes over a period of time and later integrating them as a single novel. Each work shows different aspects of renga . Yukiguuni reveals his use of nature description both as a linguistic process and as an epithet function to create a narrative design. Both features are derived from a kotodama sensibility which has been for Kawabata's characters a sometimes negative experience. Yama no oto, on the other hand, proceeds as a believable human drama performed in a post-war Japanese household. Chapter Four demonstrates how, beneath the narrative, there are layers of allusions waiting to interconnect the surface human drama, creating the 'sound of the mountain.' This renga effect is called hibiki (reverberation). Chapter Five presents Nemureru bijo as Kawabata's aesthetic manifesto by following his internal search for an ultimate vision of meaning. The discussion centers on the novel's structural pattern and the integrated imagery of womanhood which leads to the ultimate motherhood achieved by the protagonist's, association of memories. Kawabata's life-long obedience to the disciplines of his literary past is characterised by his interest in the renga and in the kotodama dynamic within that form. This has allowed him to create a unique narrative technique, modern in its effect and classical in its method.

Thesis/Dissertation

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2009-01-19

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/3777

Asian Studies

University of British Columbia

UBCV

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