While narratology flourished in European languages academia from the late 20th century onwards, shifting its emphasis on the structure per-se to the action of telling/narrating, similar studies also developed in East Asia around the turn of the century. Examining literary texts in East Asian languages, scholars adopted, refined, and sometimes modified narratological concepts and frameworks created based on mostly Western literatures. More recently, they started taking up diverse cultural artifacts and expanded their scopes including socio-historical issues. Regrettably, though, such rich studies of narratives in these languages are still underrepresented in global academic forums. This session revisits narratological approaches using Korean and Japanese examples, while showcasing latest developments in studies of narratives in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific region with a particular emphasis on their sociocultural contexts.

- Presenters (*: chairs): (1) AN Young-hee (Keimyung University)." The Discovery of the Inner Self: The Establishment of Narrative Style in Modern Japanese and Korean Novels." This paper addresses how two writers in East Asia, Iwano Hōmei and Kim Dong-in, established the fundamental style for a confessional novel in Japanese and in Korean respectively, which is related to the issues of subjectivity and objectivity.; (2) KOSAKA Eliko* (Toyo University). "Kibei Literature in Translation: Reexamining the Narratives of Minoru Kiyota's War Memoirs." This paper examines Minoru Kiyota’s memoir of his WWII and Korean War experiences written in Japanese and in English translation, exploring what their use of different narrative styles may convey and concurrently occlude.; (3) MAESHIMA Shiho* (University of Tokyo). "Changing Expression/Perception of ‘Reality’: Narratological Transitions in Modern Japanese Journalistic Reporting.” Taking up a modern practice of news reporting, this paper examines how narrative techniques to report current affairs changed in Japan from the late 19th century until the interwar period, which, concomitantly, led to transitions in perceptions of “reality.”; (4) PARK Jin-su (Gachon University). “The Narratology of Japanese and Korean Popular Music: The Function of Perspective in Enka and Trot.” – Popular music formed in the 1910s and 1920s in the Korean peninsula and Japan developed separately since the 1960s onwards out of their need to establish national identities. This paper addresses its cultural implications by analyzing perspectives in their representative songs.; (5) TAKEUCHI Akiko (Hosei University). “Narratological Approach to Noh Drama: Narration, Fusion of Voices, and Representations of Salvation.” – In noh, not only characters’ speeches but also narration is enunciated on stage, and the boundary between the two is often fused, making the voice ambiguous. This paper examines the use of such a unique language in the representations of hell and salvation, with the aid of narratology.

- Discussant: SAKAKI Atsuko (University of Toronto)