Remembering Anne Frank in Japan: Akazome Akiko's Otome no Mikkoku / The Maiden's Betrayal
2013; Oxford University Press; Volume: 8; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1093/cww/vpt002
ISSN1754-1484
Autores Tópico(s)Contemporary Literature and Criticism
ResumoIn 2010 the novel Otome no Mikkoku / The Maiden’s Betrayal by the contemporary Japanese female author Akazome Akiko was awarded the prestigious Akutagawa Prize for literature. The work is controversial for its use of Anne Frank’s diary and for being written in the style of lightweight popular girls’ fiction. This article demonstrates how narrative structure, intertextuality, and parody are used to create a complex cultural critique of the relationship between past and present, fiction and nonfiction, and history and memory. It explores how the interaction between Akazome’s fictional text and the historical document of Anne Frank’s diary can shed light on war and memory in Japan in a way that moves beyond the simplistic Western assumption that Japan is unable or unwilling to confront the past.
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