Portland State University PDXScholar University Honors Theses University Honors College 2014 Fragments of Struggle : Five Short Stories by Kobayashi Takiji Benjamin Robert Burton Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/honorstheses Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Burton, Benjamin Robert, "Fragments of Struggle : Five Short Stories by Kobayashi Takiji" (2014). University Honors Theses. Paper 50. https://doi.org/10.15760/honors.51 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in University Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible:
[email protected]. Fragments of Struggle: Five Short Stories by Kobayashi Takiji by Benjamin Robert Burton An undergraduate honors thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in University Honors and Japanese Thesis Adviser Jon Holt, Ph.D. Portland State University 2014 I. Overview Perhaps it was hearing about the 2009 blockbuster adaptation of The Crab Cannery Ship (Kanikōsen, 1929) that first brought my attention to Japanese proletarian author, Kobayashi Takiji (1903-1933). Or maybe it was the coincidence of landing in Japan for the first time during the height of the “The Crab Cannery Ship boom” in Fall 2008. Nevertheless, I was excited and impressed by Takiji after reading Frank Motofuji’s 1973 translation, The Factory Ship. Unlike the figures of Japanese literature I had been acquainted with—Mori Ōgai, Natsume Sōseki, Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, and the like— here was an author that adopted a simple and realistic style, meant to be read and understood by the common person.