In this blog post, I will examine the rebellion, interpersonal relationships, and the issues of action and loneliness exhibited by the postwar Japanese youth through Shintaro Ishihara’s ‘The Season of the Sun’ and ‘What Cannot Be Taken Away’. The First Postwar Author to Assert His Own Voice Shintaro Ishihara was born on September 30, 1932, in the Japanese port city...
Why did Tacitus use the lives of the Germanic peoples to reflect on Rome?
In this blog post, I examined the significance of Tacitus’s ‘Germania’ by focusing on the daily lives and customs of the ancient Germanic peoples, their relationship with Rome, and Tacitus’s perspective on them. Who was Tacitus? While reading ‘Germania’, my interest was first drawn to Tacitus himself. Publius Cornelius Tacitus, widely regarded as one of the greatest...
A Reexamination of Paradigm Shifts and Provisional Theories as Presented in Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’
In this blog post, I will reexamine the concepts of “paradigm” and “scientific revolution” as presented in Thomas Kuhn’s ‘The Structure of Scientific Revolutions’ and propose a perspective that views paradigms as provisional theories. Definition and Formation of Paradigms Everyone has probably heard the word “paradigm” at least once. This term is a concept popularized by Thomas...
How did Katherine Mansfield discover the subtleties of the human heart in ordinary daily life?
In this blog post, I examined Katherine Mansfield’s life and literary world, reflecting on how she captured the subtle psychology of human beings and the beauty of life within ordinary, mundane daily experiences. The Growth of an Author Who Discovered a Passion for Reading and Writing Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) was born on October 4, 1888, in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, as...
Kafka’s Life and Literature: Alienation and Strangeness as Seen in ‘The Trial’
In this blog post, we will examine the ontological anguish and alienation evident in Kafka’s life and works, focusing particularly on references to ‘The Trial’ to explore its literary form and meaning. Kafka was born on July 3, 1883, in Prague and died on June 3, 1924, at the Kirling Sanatorium on the outskirts of Vienna. On the surface, his life appeared to be an extremely...
What was Zweig’s final message?
In this blog post, we examine the unfinished manuscripts Stefan Zweig left behind during his exile in Brazil, as well as the spirit of Montaigne and tolerance that he held onto until the very end. Zweig’s Life and Exile Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) was born in Vienna, Austria, and lived in Salzburg from 1919 to 1934. Of Jewish descent, he left Austria and sought exile in London as Hitler and...
How does “The Royal Game” depict fascism and human reason on the chessboard?
In this blog post, after reading Stefan Zweig’s “The Royal Game,” I followed the two intertwined narratives within the work to reflect on human reason and psychology, as well as the violence of fascism, as revealed through the game of chess. “The Royal Game” is said to be Stefan Zweig’s final work, written between 1941 and 1942, and one of his most famous works. After being first published...
What does the irony of repentance and judgment ask of us?
In this blog post, I reflected on how a person’s downfall, repentance, and the desire to judge others are intertwined, using Albert Camus’s ‘The Fall’ as a lens. Why is ‘The Fall’ such a complex and challenging work? Published in 1956, Albert Camus’s ‘The Fall’ struck me as a unique work that blends the characteristics of both a novel and a play. It also...
How did ‘The Ways of the World’ celebrate the liberation and freedom of an era?
In this blog post, I’d like to share my thoughts on ‘The Ways of the World’ by André Gide, focusing on the significance the work held for Gide’s own literary world and for the younger generations that followed. ‘The Ways of the World’ is not only the most famous of André Gide’s works but is also said to be a work he himself regarded as so important that he expressed...
How Did George Orwell’s World of ‘Animal Farm’ Take Shape?
In this blog post, I’ll summarize how George Orwell’s life and experiences led to the world of ‘Animal Farm’. Birth and Family Background George Orwell, whose birth name was Eric Arthur Blair, was born on June 25, 1903, in Motihari, Bengal, India. His father was a British civil servant of Scottish descent who worked for the Indian administration, and his mother came from a...