Irish Writing on Lafcadio Hearn and Japan

Irish Writing on Lafcadio Hearn and Japan PDF

Author: Sean G Ronan

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2023-07-17

Total Pages: 391

ISBN-13: 9004213562

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This will appeal to anyone wishing to enrich their understanding of Japan, those with an interest in Hearn, Irish literary tradition and life and literature in a cross-cultural context.

Irish Writing on Lafcadio Hearn and Japan

Irish Writing on Lafcadio Hearn and Japan PDF

Author: Sean G. Ronan

Publisher:

Published: 1997-10-31

Total Pages: 240

ISBN-13: 9781860340345

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In the century since Lafcadio Hearn's first books about Japan were published, few other writers have been so widely read for their interpretations and records of things Japanese.

Black Dragonfly

Black Dragonfly PDF

Author: Jean Pasley

Publisher:

Published: 2021-04-15

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 9781913891053

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The year is 1890. Western influences are flooding into Japan. A nomadic Irishman arrives to record this unique culture before it vanishes. In this richly imagined novel, late nineteenth century Japan is brought vividly to life. Based on the remarkable experiences of the Irish writer, Lafcadio Hearn, and drawing on his letters, essays and books, Jean Pasley explores not only Hearn's stark, lonely childhood in Ireland and his scandalous time in America but also how Japan changed him and how he went on to become one of Japan's most celebrated and cherished writers. "A lavish, beautiful testimony to the life and achievements of Lafcadio Hearn, the writer who opened our eyes to Japan's intricate, extraordinary art and literature, and to its rituals, sometimes exquisite, sometimes scarifying, always uniquely the country's own. Pasley is a true writer, and Black Dragonfly a book to read and remember." --- Frank McGuinness "This is the story of the writer, Lafcadio Hearn, a complex and troubled man, as he tries to come to terms with his life and at the same time, negotiate the ancient, mysterious and fast-changing civilisation of nineteenth century Japan. Handled with great delicacy and empathy, from start to finish, Black Dragonfly is a pure pleasure to read." --- Christine Dwyer Hickey "One of the most engaging and insightful books I've read in a long time. Written with vivacity and elegance, Black Dragonfly is a profound love letter to the fading elegance of an ancient civilisation skilfully captured in this alluring and absorbing tale. " --- Manchán Magan

The Sweetest Fruits

The Sweetest Fruits PDF

Author: Monique Truong

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-09-03

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 0735221030

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"A sublime, many-voiced novel of voyage and reinvention" (Anthony Marra) "[Truong] imagines the extraordinary lives of three women who loved an extraordinary man [and] creates distinct, engaging voices for these women" (Kirkus Reviews) A Greek woman tells of how she willed herself out of her father's cloistered house, married an Irish officer in the British Army, and came to Ireland with her two-year-old son in 1852, only to be forced to leave without him soon after. An African American woman, born into slavery on a Kentucky plantation, makes her way to Cincinnati after the Civil War to work as a boarding house cook, where in 1872 she meets and marries an up-and-coming newspaper reporter. In Matsue, Japan, in 1891, a former samurai's daughter is introduced to a newly arrived English teacher, and becomes the mother of his four children and his unsung literary collaborator. The lives of writers can often best be understood through the eyes of those who nurtured them and made their work possible. In The Sweetest Fruits, these three women tell the story of their time with Lafcadio Hearn, a globetrotting writer best known for his books about Meiji-era Japan. In their own unorthodox ways, these women are also intrepid travelers and explorers. Their accounts witness Hearn's remarkable life but also seek to witness their own existence and luminous will to live unbounded by gender, race, and the mores of their time. Each is a gifted storyteller with her own precise reason for sharing her story, and together their voices offer a revealing, often contradictory portrait of Hearn. With brilliant sensitivity and an unstinting eye, Truong illuminates the women's tenacity and their struggles in a novel that circumnavigates the globe in the search for love, family, home, and belonging.

Lafcadio Hearn's Japan

Lafcadio Hearn's Japan PDF

Author: Lafcadio Hearn

Publisher: Tuttle Publishing

Published: 2011-04-11

Total Pages: 260

ISBN-13: 1462900100

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This collection of writings from Lafcaido Hern paints a rare and fascinating picture of pre-modern Japan Over a century after his death, author, translator, and educator Lafcaido Hearn remains one of the best-known Westerners ever to make Japan his home. Almost more Japanese than the Japanese--"to think with their thoughts" was his aim--his prolific writings on things Japanese were instrumental in introducing Japanese culture to the West. In this masterful anthology, Donald Richie shows that Hearn was first and foremost a reliable and enthusiastic observer, who faithfully recorded a detailed account of the people, customs, and culture of late nineteen-century Japan. Opening and closing with excerpts from Hearn's final books, Richie's astute selection from among "over 4,000 printed pages" not including correspondence and other writing, also reveals Hearn's later, more sober and reflective attitudes to the things that he observed and wrote about. Part One, "The Land," chronicles Hearn's early years when he wrote primarily about the appearance of his adopted home. Part Two, "The People," records the author's later years when he came to terms with the Japanese themselves. In this anthology, Richie, more gifted in capturing the essence of a person on the page than any other foreign writer living in Japan, has picked out the best of Hearn's evocations. Select writings include: The Chief City of the Province of the Gods Three Popular Ballads In the Cave of the Children's Ghosts Bits of Life and Death A Street Singer Kimiko On A Bridge

Japanese Ghost Stories

Japanese Ghost Stories PDF

Author: Lafcadio Hearn

Publisher: Penguin

Published: 2019-09-24

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0241381274

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Brilliantly entertaining and eerie ghost stories, regarded as major classics in Japan, by the Irish writer and Japanophile Lafcadio Hearn—whose life inspired bestselling writer Monique Truong's novel The Sweetest Fruits A Penguin Classic In this collection of classic ghost stories from Japan, beautiful princesses turn out to be frogs, paintings come alive, deadly spectral brides haunt the living, and a samurai delivers the baby of a Shinto goddess with mystical help. Here are all the phantoms and ghouls of Japanese folklore: "rokuro-kubi," whose heads separate from their bodies at night; "jikininki," or flesh-eating goblins; and terrifying faceless "mujina" who haunt lonely neighborhoods. Lafcadio Hearn, a master storyteller, drew on traditional Japanese folklore, infused with memories of his own haunted childhood in Ireland, to create the chilling tales in Japanese Ghost Stories. They are today regarded in Japan as classics in their own right.