Tanaka Yasuo's Nantonaku, kurisutaru (Somehow, Crystal, 1980) and Yoshimoto Banana's Kitchin (Kitchen, 1987) have been denigrated as em-ble-matic of a so-called "bastardized line" of Japanese literature, characterized by an un-abashed celebration of a "late-capitalist" consumerist ethos. Close rea-dings of these works are undertaken in order to demonstrate that, while these works are reflective of late-capitalist postmodern Japan (the de-ve-lop-ment of which is delineated prior to the readings), they nonetheless posit uniquely post-modern strategies for critically engaging issues of identity...

Engaging Banality: Stories of the Salaried Life by Kuroi Senji features three of the best-known works of Kuroi Senji's early career. "Hole and Sky" (1968), Time (1969) and Running Family (1970) received widespread critical attention in Japan and have been reprinted many times, yet none has been translated until now. In its own way each story reveals the profound ambivalence increasing numbers of Japanese began to feel toward their lives as their desires were channelled into the nation's single-minded goal of achieving high-speed economic growth. The stories are preceded...