Rashomon and Other Stories

by Ryunosuke Akutagawa

Overview

"Rashomon and Other Stories" has had a profound impact on both Japanese and international literature. The stories "Rashomon" and "In a Bamboo Grove" were famously adapted into the 1950 film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa, which brought Akutagawa's work to a global audience and won numerous awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival. Akutagawa's exploration of the human condition, his innovative narrative techniques, and his ability to capture the complexities of moral and existential dilemmas have cemented his place as one of Japan's greatest writers. His works continue to be studied and appreciated for their literary merit and their insights into the human psyche.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9786558945383
Publisher:	Lebooks Editora
Publication date:	08/05/2024
Sold by:	Bookwire
Format:	eBook
Pages:	80
Sales rank:	710,947
File size:	353 KB

About the Author

Ryunosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927) was a Japanese writer often referred to as the "father of the Japanese short story." He was born in Tokyo, Japan, and his short but prolific literary career left a lasting impact on Japanese literature. Akutagawa is known for his keen psychological insights, his exploration of human nature, and his masterful storytelling. Akutagawa's writing style is characterized by its clarity, precision, and psychological depth. He often employed a third-person omniscient narrative, allowing him to delve into the inner thoughts and motivations of his characters. His stories frequently incorporate elements of traditional Japanese culture, folklore, and history, blending them with modernist sensibilities and philosophical inquiries..

Table of Contents

	Introduction	11
	In a Grove	17
	Rashomon	31
	Yam Gruel	41
	The Martyr	66
	Kesa and Morito	82
	The Dragon	94

Editorial Reviews

"Because I was a Japanese major in college, a very nice edition of a translation of Rashomon and Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa had been left for me at my bedside, to read while I was there and to take with me when I left. Thoughtful, I thought. And fitting. Even more fitting, that friend and I no longer speak, and I am sure we have very different versions as to why that is."

The New York Times Book Review - David Rakoff

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"Clear-eyed glimpses of human behavior in the extremities of poverty, stupidity, greed, vanity … Story-telling of an unconventional sort, with most of the substance beneath the shining, enameled surface." —The New York Times Book Review

"There are enough Swiftian touches in Akutagawa to show his hatred of stupidity, greed, hypocrisy and the rising jingoism of the day. But Akutagawa's artistic integrity kept him from joining his contemporaries in the easy social criticism or naive introspection … What he did was question the values of his society, dramatize the complexities of human psychology, and study, with a Zen taste for paradox, the precarious balance of illusion and reality." —Howard Hibbett, from the Introduction to Rashomon and Other Stories

From the Publisher