... a literature of decadence, is at the same time an expression of resis­ tance and criticism, however modest its scale and impact. Its playful sophistication contains at least potential traits of postmodernity. The second stage in the history of the shdsetsu (i.e., telling tales) is from the mid-Meiji era...

... or postwar writers who had been Marxist before the war. The mainstream of Japan­ ese fiction turned against the logos in its preference for what was called the I-novel (shi-shdsetsu). To be sure, Japanese writers con­ sidered themselves at the conscious level to be part of the structure of modern...