He often describes himself and his actions as if he were a detached observer of his own actions. The story begins with a character, Niki Jumpei, who seems all but totally unaware of who he really is. And long since its publication, The Woman in the Dunes, which in 1960 won the Yomiuri Prize for literature, continues to retain its classification of being not only the best of Abe’s extensive life work, but also one of the classic examples of modern Japanese fiction. After the popular success of this novel, Abe’s works became the most often translated fiction of Japanese literature. The Woman in the Dunes and the subsequent movie based on the novel catapulted Abe into the international realm.

His statement is fascinating, but not very glorifying, as the protagonist becomes trapped in a world of ceaseless and mindless labor. With this novel, one of Abe’s more popular works, Abe takes the reader into a very strange and isolated world in order to make a statement about the condition of modern civilization.

Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes is a prime example. GradeSaver, 12 September 2015 Web.Kobo Abe, one of Japan’s most celebrated and frequently translated authors and playwrights, is often compared to the Czech writer, Franz Kafka, because both writers created novels that were built upon nightmarish allegories. Next Section Snow Country Summary Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Lin, Alexander. To this day, the novel holds a prominent position not only in Japanese literature but in the popular imagination almost any Japanese would recognize its opening line, 'The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country,' which he or she would have learned as a schoolchild. The novel was then translated, including the final chapter, into English by Edwin Seidensticker in 1957. However, he did not consider the novel completed and wrote two pieces that would become the final chapter in 19. Kawabata wrote Snow Country between 19, publishing it piecemeal in various literary magazines and then in its entirety in 1937. It is a story told in very spare and lyrical prose, in which many things are only conveyed indirectly and nature, especially the passing of the seasons, holds a position of paramount importance. Set in a remote hot spring town in the 'snow country,' an area of the western Japanese coast which receives an extraordinary amount of snowfall, the novel tells the tale of the failed love between Shimamura, a wealthy Tokyo dilettante who though a ballet critic has never seen a ballet in person, and Komako, a sensual and passionate geisha who wants to love beyond restricted life of a professional entertainer.

One of the three novels by Yasunari Kawabata that the Nobel Committee cited in awarding him the Nobel Literature Prize in 1968, Snow Country is one of the famous writer's best and most well known works.

Snow country by yasunari kawabata