Books like Modern Japanese literature by Donald Keene

This extensive anthology includes excerpts from plays and novels plus stories, fairy tales, and many poems.

This is the intimate and inspiring story of one of the truly great cosmopolitans of our time. During an exceptional career spanning five decades, Donald Keene has brought the works of Japan's greatest writers to worldwide attention through his highly acclaimed writings, translations, and anthologies. On Familiar Terms is the deeply personal story of his remarkable life - from a Depression-era childhood through his wartime experiences as a naval intelligence officer in the Pacific, his early enchantment with the now-vanished world of old Kyoto, and the diverse and lasting friendships he made in New York, Japan, and England. In this poignant and engaging portrait of intellectual, spiritual, and personal growth, Donald Keene recalls his lifelong journey, including fascinating relationships with and illuminating anecdotes about such writers as Yukio Mishima, Yasunari Kawabata, Kenzaburo Oe, and Kobo Abe. This is a story of universal interest, of self-discovery among shifting cultural boundaries, and the making of a committed internationalist against the backdrop of a complex and restless world.

Modern Japanese Diaries is a collection of journals written by Japanese who journeyed to America, Europe, and China between 1860 and 1920. It begins with entries by the first Japanese to be sent abroad when the country was opened after more than two hundred years of isolation. They had little idea of what they would encounter, and their impressions of the West possess a fresh innocence that can never be recaptured in today's interconnected world. Faithfully kept, the diaries record personal yet overarching views of the countries and their cultures, and sentiments that range from delight to disillusionment. These narratives provide insight into Japanese society through the diarists' reactions to alien customs, their distaste of the "barbarian music" played in Europe, their admiration for American democracy, and their curiosity about the philosophy of Christianity. Even those who never left Japan were affected by the Western influences infiltrating their country, changing the attitudes of the nation and opening a new era in Japanese history. The diaries are written by a range of individuals, including samurai and other government officials, several novelists and poets, a pioneer in education for women, a painter, and an anarchist who recorded his impressions of the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. Any of the diaries can be read independently, but various themes link them and impart a unity to these personal accounts by men and women who wrote under strikingly different circumstances. Donald Keene treats each voice intimately, inviting the reader to partake of the memories of the diarists while experiencing the world in which they lived.

Two brothers return to their ancestral village in western Japan, each confronting personal crises and family secrets that threaten to unravel their bond against a backdrop of cultural and economic change.

Not all readers in ancient Greece whiled away the hours with Homer, Plato, or Sophocles - at least, not always. Many enjoyed light reading, such as can be found in the pages of this lively anthology. Various types of popular writing - novels, short stories, books of jokes or fables, fortune-telling handbooks - trace their origins to the ancient Mediterranean. In fact, some of this literature was so successful that it remained in circulation for centuries, even into the Middle Ages. Translated into other languages, these works were the best sellers of their time and remain enjoyable reading today. They are also fascinating social documents that reveal much about the daily lives, humor, loves, anxieties, fantasies, values, and beliefs of ordinary men and women.

A Personal Matter follows Bird, a disenchanted intellectual whose marriage collapses when his wife gives birth to a brain‑damaged child, forcing him to confront the moral crisis of whether to keep the infant or end its pain.

"Same-Sex Love in India presents a stunning array of writings on same-sex love from over 2000 years of Indian literature. Translated from more than a dozen languages and drawn from Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and modern fictional traditions, these writings testify to the presence of same-sex love in various forms since ancient times."--BOOK JACKET.

A melancholy coming‑of‑age tale set in Tokyo, seen through the eyes of college student Toru Watanabe as he confronts love, loss, friendship, and mental health.