Minae Mizumura (水村 美苗, Mizumura Minae, born 1951) is a Japanese novelist. Among other literary awards, she has won the Noma Literary New Face Prize and the Yomiuri Prize.
Minae Mizumura | |
|---|---|
| Native name | 水村美苗 |
| Born | 1951 (age 72–73) Tokyo, Japan |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Language | Japanese |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Genre | Fiction |
| Notable works |
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| Notable awards |
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| Website | |
| Official website | |
Early life
editBorn into a middle-class family in Tokyo, she moved to Long Island, New York at the age of twelve. Her years of reading and re-reading European literature during her childhood in post war Japan, and modern Japanese literature while attending American high school, later became the foundation for her novels. After studying studio art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and French at Sorbonne in Paris, she went on to Yale College, majoring in French. While still a student at Yale Graduate School, she published a critical essay, "Renunciation",[n 1] on the writing of the literary critic Paul de Man upon his death. It was noticed[according to whom?] as a precursor to later studies on de Man's work and launched her writing career.
Career
editHer first novel, Light and Darkness Continued, a sequel to Natsume Sōseki's unfinished classic, and her second, An I Novel From Left to Right, a fictionalized autobiography, were first serialized in quarterly journals edited by the literary critic Kojin Karatani. Her third, A True Novel, a re-telling of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights in postwar Japan, was first serialized in the monthly literary journal Shinchō. It was translated into English in 2013.
Mizumura has taught at Princeton University, the University of Michigan and Stanford University. She was a resident novelist in the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa in 2003. She won the 1991 Agency for Cultural Affairs New Artist Award, the 1996 Noma New Artist Award, and the 2003 Yomiuri Prize for Literature. Minae Mizumura now resides in Tokyo, Japan.
Writing style
editShe is often portrayed[according to whom?] as a novelist who questions the conventional boundaries of national literature. Her novels include Light and Darkness Continued, An I Novel from left to right, and A True Novel, which has been selected for the Japanese Literature Publishing Project, a national program to promote translations of Japanese literature.[1] She also writes essays and literary criticism in major newspapers and journals. Many of Minae Mizumura's works have been described[according to whom?] as highly readable and often entertaining, while, at the same time, resonating with historical significance. They are also known for their formalistic innovations, such as making use of unusual printing formats and inserting English texts and photographic illustrations. Because she returned to Japan as an adult and chose to write in Japanese despite her coming of age in the United States and her education in English, critics[who?] have often noted her particular love for the language and her commitment to Japanese literature. Her analysis and observations on the demise of Japanese, detailed in her book of criticism titled The Fall of Language in the Age of English, gained much attention from the mainstream media as well as the Internet. In the same book, she wrote of the significance of preserving the great literary tradition established during the time of building modern Japan.
English translations
edit- The Fall of Language in the Age of English, translated by Mari Yoshihara and Juliet Winters Carpenter, Columbia University Press
- A True Novel, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, Other Press
- Inheritance from Mother, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter, Other Press
- An I-Novel, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter in collaboration with the author, Columbia University Press, March 2021
Awards and honors
edit- 1991 41st MEXT Award for New Artists[2]
- 1995 17th Noma Literary New Face Prize[3]
- 2003 54th Yomiuri Prize (FY2002)[4]
- 2014 Best Translated Book Award, one of two runners-up for A True Novel, translated from the Japanese by Juliet Winters Carpenter[5]
Works
edit- Light and Darkness Continued (Zoku Meian), (ISBN 4101338116) 1990.
- An I Novel from Left to Right (Shishosetu from left to right), (ISBN 4480425853) 1995.
- Letters with Bookmarks Attached (Tegami, Shiori wo Soete), (ISBN 4022642718) 1998.
- A True Novel, (in two volumes ISBN 4-10-133813-2 ISBN 4101338140) 2002.
- The Fall of the Japanese Language in the Age of English (Nihongo ga Horobiru Toki – Eigo no Seiki no Nakade), Chikuma Shobo, (ISBN 4480814965) 2008.
- Reading in the Japanese Language (Nihongo wo Yomutoiukoto), Chikuma Shobo, (ISBN 9784480815019) 2009.
- Writing in the Japanese Language (Nihongo wo Kakutoiukoto), Chikuma Shobo, (ISBN 9784480815026) 2009.
Notes
edit- ^ "Renunciation", Yale French Studies, no. 69 (1985), pp. 81–97. doi:10.2307/2929926.
References
edit- ^ A True Novel | The 2nd Selected Works | Translation Works | Japanese Literature Publishing Project:JLPP
- ^ "芸術選奨歴代受賞者一覧（昭和25年度～）" (PDF). Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (in Japanese). Retrieved September 14, 2018.
- ^ "野間文芸新人賞 過去受賞作" [Noma Literary New Face Prize Past Winning Works] (in Japanese). Kodansha. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
- ^ "読売文学賞" [Yomiuri Prize for Literature] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved September 14, 2018.
- ^ Chad W. Post (April 28, 2014). "BTBA 2014: Poetry and Fiction Winners". Three Percent. Retrieved April 28, 2014.
External links
edit- Official website (in English)
- Minae Mizumura, Why I Write What I Write (in English)
- Yoko Fujimoto, Contexts and 'Con-textuality' of Minae Mizumura's Honkaku-Shosetsu (A True Novel) (in English)
- The Japanese Language: An Endangered Heritage. An interview with Mizumura Minae.(in English)
- A review of "A True Novel" in relation to Natsume Soseki's "Light and Dark" [1]