On Politics And Literature, Two Lectures

P A P E R S • 18 OCCASIONAL CENTER TOWNSEND B. DOREEN ON POLITICS AND LITERATURE TWO LECTURES BY KENZABURÔ ÔE Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts On Politics and Literature: Two Lectures by Kenzaburô Ôe Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts THE DOREEN B. TOWNSEND CENTER FOR THE HUMANITIES was established at the University of California at Berkeley in 1987 in order to promote interdisciplinary studies in the humanities. Endowed by Doreen B. Townsend, the Center awards fellowships to advanced graduate students and untenured faculty on the Berkeley campus, and supports interdisciplinary working groups, lectures, and team-taught graduate seminars. It also sponsors symposia and conferences which strengthen research and teaching in the humanities, arts, and related social science fields. The Center is directed by Randolph Starn, Professor of History and Italian Studies. Christina M. Gillis has been Associate Director of the Townsend Center since 1988. The eighteenth number of the Townsend Center Occasional Papers series includes two lectures by Japanese writer and Nobel laureate KENZABURÔ ÔE, who visited Berkeley in April 1999 to deliver the first in a series of lectures established at the Center for Japanese Studies to honor political theorist Masao Maruyama. In his Maruyama Lecture, “The Language of Masao Maruyama,” Kenzaburô Ôe focuses upon the problem of political responsibliity in the modern world, taking Maruyama’s major work as his point of departure; in a second (unrelated) lecture, “From the Beginning to the Present, and Facing the End: The Case of One Japanese Writer,” Kenzaburô Ôe offers an account of his own development as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. In a year dedicated to demonstrating the importance of international dimensions in the humanities, the Townsend Center was particularly honored and gratified to have the opportunity to work with Professor Andrew Barshay and the Center for Japanese Studies in welcoming Kenzaburô Ôe to Berkeley. Funding for the OCCASIONAL PAPERS of the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities is provided by Dean Joseph Cerny of the Graduate Division, and by other donors. Begun in 1994-95, the series makes available in print and on-line some of the many lectures delivered in Townsend Center programs. The series is registered with the Library of Congress. For more information on the publication, please contact the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, 220 Stephens Hall, The University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-2340, http://ls.berkeley.edu/dept/townsend, (510) 643-9670. Occasional Papers Series Editor: Christina M. Gillis Assistant Editor & Production: Jill Stauffer Printed by Hunza Graphics, Berkeley, California All texts © The Regents of the University of California and the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, 1999. No portion of this publication may be reproduced by any means without the express permission of the authors or of the Center. ISBN 1-881865-18-5 Occasional Papers of the Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, no. 18. Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts Contents Two Lectures by Kenzaburô Ôe Preface Randolph Starn v Introduction Andrew E. Barshay 1 Two Lectures by Kenzaburô Ôe: “The Language of Masao Maruyama” Audience Comments 5 24 “From the Beginning to the Present, and Facing the End: The Case of One Japanese Writer” Audience Comments 29 46 Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Arts Preface Two years ago my colleague and friend Andrew Barshay and I began talking about inviting Kenzaburô Ôe to launch a lecture series in honor of the late Masao Maruyama. Besides our admi