Fünf Thesen zur Literatur der Heisei-Zeit

Abstract

The end of the thirty-year Heisei era (1989-2019) is an occasion to sum up the literature of that era, and formulate some specific criteria and features of Heisei bungaku 平成文学. Are there any thematic and literary characteristics of the period, and if so, of what kind? This paper postulates five theses that define Heisei bungaku. Firstly, a significant increase in the number of female writers since the end of the 20^th century indicates a more substantial presence of women in contemporary Japanese literature. Secondly,  digitalization has had a formative influence on both text composition and literary production. The third assumption is that stylistic devices of horror have increasingly found their way into mainstream literary genres. This may be related to the narration of the direct and diffuse unease caused by nuclear contamination. Similarly, fantastic and occult elements of mystery literature have found widespread acceptance. The fourth proposition is that the economic fragility after several so-called lost decades has given birth to neo-proletarian literature. Fifthly, in a world of communication characterized by simultaneity, nostalgia informs the experience of the present age. Finally, the one element that permeates almost all aspects of Heisei bungaku is its border crossing (ekkyōsei 越境性) quality.