Sep 19, 2025
Do you have a favorite national literature (e.g. American, Russian, etc.)? Why does the work of that particular nation speak to you? Hard mode: don't condense to a specific time period or movement.
I’m gonna cheat a little bit and say Latin American literature as a whole. Their canon is pretty slim with not much happening before the 20th century in terms of global influence, leaving only a handful of monumental figures, the most influential probably being Borges and Garcia Márquez. The end result of this for me, and this is probably because of my readings of Bolaño as well, is that there’s this certain element of an unknown, buried literary world filled with faceless figures. Writers who disappeared in revolutions, poetes maudits who committed suicide, failed literary movements that led to the exiles of members. It kinda gets my dick hard.
Probably Japanese, mostly because it's both very alien and very familiar. It's like reading Martian literature and thinking "Nevermind green skin, different planet, weird food and values: we're the same". That'd work with any national literature besides mine, but somehow, Japan does it best for me.
I haven't read much Japanese literature, so it's very possible I am wrong, but I swear to God, almost every Japanese book has followed the Lolita model of a lecherous and creepy old man getting involved with a capricious young woman. They don't seem to have the grace of Nabokov either. It's look how loose this hussy is rather than how disgusting the creep is. Ok I wrote this and I looked at my old g*oodreads account and I'm thinking Naomi by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki and Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai so I am saying this without a great sample. I've read some Mishima as well but I dislike him for other reasons. I do remember Naomi being a 1 to 1 copy of Laughter in the Dark by Nabokov but worse.
anaca8 months ago
I'm going through the Akutagawa Prized novels (these are first novels, see a list here https://www.lit.salon/lists/anaca/FEoyrkpWevkkkWlaEGc2/Received-an-Akutagawa-Prize), and the template for the recent ones is mostly "woman going crazy under social pressure to have a good job, take care of husband, make babies, take care of them and mother-in-law".
iamnotchilean8 months ago
I feel like someone who goes against that mold would be Mieko Kawakami. I loved Breasts and Eggs. I feel like it very clearly articulated what it's like to be a woman in the most misogynistic first-world country on earth lol
tokyodrifter8 months ago
I've read some Japanese literature, and while I've enjoyed most of it, I can't say any of them struck me as, like, amazing. But I'd prob chalk that up to translation issues.
anaca8 months ago
Yes, maybe something of a barrier remains, and I agree: my Japanese readings tend not to leave as strong impressions. Then, there are exceptions: Soseki is sometimes as beautiful and poignant as my French Realists; Mishima can be sublime; Dasai is bleak in a rare way; some images from Abe's Woman in the Dunes stay with me. But yeah, I would not put any of them at the top of a list. Translation probably robs us of some things.
i think german, because no matter what the time period, i can really get down with weltschmerz and irreconcilable dualities i also enjoy american lit that deals with the sublimity of nature, but i'm american and biased