JOURNAL ARTICLE

Winged Visions: James Joyce, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, and the Anti-Künstlerroman.

  • Published In: Modernism/Modernity, 2025, v. 32, n. 2. P. 287 1 of 3

  • Database: Academic Search Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: Hou, Jue 3 of 3

Abstract

This article reads the leading Japanese modernist Akutagawa Ryūnosuke's late works of shishōsetsu (or "I-novel,"), and the short story "Cogwheels" (Haguruma , 1927) in particular, against James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Whereas Portrait chronicles its youthful hero's initiation into artistic creation, "Cogwheels" records an established writer's descent into madness. Taking as its point of departure a crisis of representation that underlies both works, albeit in different ways as indicated by their respective employment of the trope of Dedalus/Icarus, I will examine how both Akutagawa's and Joyce's protagonists struggle with an excessive symbolism that renders sensible life accessible, as always already "secondhand." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Modernism/Modernity. 2025/04, Vol. 32, Issue 2, p287
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:History
  • Publication Date:2025
  • ISSN:1071-6068
  • DOI:10.1353/mod.2025.a972595
  • Accession Number:189214389
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