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Otsuichi’s Goth (2002)
Author(s)
Ancuta, Katarzyna
Date Issued
April 26, 2018
Type
Book Chapter
Abstract
Katarzyna Ancuta Otsuichi’s Goth (2002) In 2000, Henry J. Hughes made a case for the recognition of Japanese Gothic as both an inherently Asian tradition, rooted in ancient Chinese literature, and a transcultural category demonstrating that ‘subversion of religious and social norms, an obsession with sex and death, and a fear of the supernatural or unknown. .. are human qualities, not the province of one culture’ (Hughes 2000: 60). Hughes notes that Japanese literature has a long history of Gothic inclinations, and argues that while Japanese Gothic is reminiscent of its Western counterpart it has evolved under specific socio-cultural conditions and remains closely aligned with the local religio-philosophical system built upon Buddhist, Shinto and Confucian teachings. Japanese Gothic stories are thus unsurprisingly ‘draped in darkness, where submerged monsters may safely surface, where rape and murder may be carried out unseen’ (83) but their resolution reflects the conviction that good and evil are intricately connected, and that to restore the balance to the universe one needs to accommodate evil rather than destroy it. Furthermore, Japanese Gothic heroes do not seek the affirmation of their individualism but rather strive to empty the self of desire, always on the lookout to merge with the sublime nothingness (mu) and be freed from life’s suffering. Hughes’s survey of the Gothic elements in Japanese literature is impressive, although he does not fail to notice Japanese critics’ apprehension that ‘accomplished native writers will be cheapened by the label Gothic,. ..
Citation
Gothic A Reader, 97-104, 2018