The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki’s Fiction (Harvard East Asian Monographs) - Hardcover

Chambers, Anthony Hood

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674796748 ISBN 13: 9780674796744

Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center, 1995

Synopsis

At the time of his death in 1965, at the age of 79, Tanizaki Jun’ichiro had been writing fiction, plays, essays, poems, and translations almost without interruption for more than fifty-five years. In this series of meditations on seven of Tanizaki’s novels and novellas, the renowned translator Anthony Chambers focuses on the thread of fantasy that Tanizaki weaves throughout his work. He examines Tanizaki’s subtle use of storytelling devices to evoke his characters’ alternate sense of reality and to encourage the reader’s participation in their fantasies. Employing his intimate knowledge of Tanizaki’s works, Chambers superbly evokes the beauty and truth Tanizaki’s characters find in their ideal worlds.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

At the time of his death in 1965 at the age of seventy-nine, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro had been writing fiction, plays, essays, poems, and translations almost without interruption for more than fifty-five years. In this series of meditations on seven of Tanizaki's novels and novellas, the renowned translator Anthony Chambers explores the attempt by Tanizaki's characters to construct ideal worlds: fantasies that were far removed from the concerns of everyday life and were, for the most part, unattainable. Chambers focuses on the thread of fantasy that Tanizaki weaves throughout his work; he examines the writer's subtle use of storytelling devices to evoke his characters' alternate sense of reality and encourage the reader's participation in their fantasies. Using his intimate knowledge of Tanizaki's works, Chambers superbly evokes the beauty and truth Tanizaki's characters find in their ideal worlds.

About the Author:

Anthony H. Chambers is a professor of Japanese literature and literary translation at Arizona State University. He has translated many works of Japanese literature, both classical and modern, and is the author of The Secret Window: Ideal Worlds in Tanizaki's Fiction.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harvard University Asia Center
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0674796748
• ISBN 13: 9780674796744
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 140