Center for Interdisciplinary Study of Monotheistic Religions(CISMOR)Doshisha University

> CISMOR Seminar > What is the Antonym of Sin? Christianity and The Place of Dazai’s Narrative in the Literary Discourse of the Pre- and Postwar Years

CISMOR Seminar

CISMOR Seminar Series

What is the Antonym of Sin? Christianity and The Place of Dazai’s Narrative in the Literary Discourse of the Pre- and Postwar Years

Date： 2020/10/17 11:00-12:30
Place： ZOOM Platform
Speaker：
  • Prof. Massimiliano Tomasi (Western Washington University, Director, Center for East Asian Studies)
Summary：
Contrary to what has been the case in Japan where countless studies have been published over the years, the importance of Christianity in Dazai's narrative has been largely dismissed overseas. Donald Keene was perhaps the first and most influential in this negative assessment in the early 1970s, and this has not changed since then among Anglophone scholars. I will explain why this assessment is still widespread and why it is misguided.