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The Forum: Natsume Soseki: Japan’s great novelist

Natsume Soseki on a 1000 Yen note, series D.

09/04/2020 GMT

Natsume Soseki: Japan’s great novelist

BBC World Service - The Forum, Natsume Soseki: Japan’s great novelist

The Japanese literary giant of the early 20th Century

The superstar Japanese writer who is very little known outside his own country.

Natsume Soseki is one of the greatest writers in the history of Japan. The backdrop to his work is the disorientation and social anxiety of the early 20th Century as Japan undertook rapid modernization after centuries of being closed to the world. Soseki has had a huge influence on generations of Japanese authors and has obsessed some international artists. His work is taught to generations of school children in Japan and greatly admired by scholars but remains obscure to much of the rest of the world. Why? 
Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss the life and work of Japanese writer Natsume Soseki: The author and critic Damian Flanagan; Michael Bourdaghs, Professor of East Asian Languages at the University of Chicago; and Reiko Abe Auestad, Professor of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages at the University of Oslo.

(Photo: Natsume Soseki on a 1000 Yen note, series D. Credit: A Dagli Orti/DEA/Getty Images)

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