Professor: R. Shaldjian Morrison LIT 231 2012 Midterm Part I. Terms and Short-Answer Questions 1.

Give the first and last year for each of the following eras. A. Taish Era: B. Shwa Era: C. Edo/Tokugawa Era: D. Meiji Era: 2. Japan began its process of modernization (kindaika) in what period? What are the defining characteristics of modernization (give at least four)? 3. Briefly define the terms bunmei kaika and risshin shusse. What era are these terms typically associated with? 4. Which story that we read might be considered a Japanese mystery novel. What are the qualities that make it such? 5. How are intertextuality and allusion different? 6. A type is a kind of character that occurs across a range of narrative texts. Identify three character types from the works weve read so far. (Note: a single character can be a combination of two or more types.) 7. Identify two stories that employ a homodiegetic narrator and two stories that employ an extradiegetic narrator. Then define the two terms. 8. Briefly explain the difference between story (fabula) and narrative discourse (sjuzet). 9. We saw an example of a self-conscious narrator in which story? Define the term, and explain what qualifies this particular narrator as such? 10. Until recently, Japanese critics have tended to read much of modern Japanese fiction as roman a clef. What does it mean to read the work as a roman a clef?

11. An essay that begins, In this work Mishima takes aim at what he considers to be the effete and shallow consumerist society of postwar Japan . . . is an example of what kind of reading/interpretation? This kind of reading is in contrast to what other kind of reading? 12. Briefly describe the philosophy of Noborus gang. What do they consider good or permissible? What do they consider evil? Part II. Short Essay Questions Choose and answer four of the following (1 page for each). Be specific. 1. In Akutagawas Green Onions, what is the significance/function of the green onions in the final scene? How does this relate to romanticism and realism? 2. Describe Mishimas narrative strategy in A Sailor Who Fell From Grace With the Sea. What is the overall effect of this strategy? How does it influence our view of the characters? (Hint: consider focalization, showing/telling, indirect discourse, free indirect discourse, interior monologue, etc.) 3. Define the aesthetic school (tanbi-ha). How is Tanizakis The Tattooer an early example of an aestheticist work? What view of art/mimesis does it offer/promote? 4. Of the stories weve read, indentify two that can be read as allegory. Explain what they are allegories of. Be as specific as possible. 5. In the postscript to Takasebune, Mori gai describes the importance of both historical fidelity and fictional embellishment. With this in mind, explain how Takasebune both adheres to history as it is (rekishi sono mama) and breaks loose from history (rekishi banare)? What methods does gai use to accomplish this? 6. Describe the interaction between Eros and Thanatos (the two basic human drives, according to Freud) in Mishimas A Sailor Who Fell from Grace from the Sea.