Asian Literature

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the themes found within the short stories, "The Ancestor" by Bi Feiyu, "Thoughts of Home" by Sonu Hwi and "The Hateful Age" by Niwa Funio. It particularly explores the themes of conflicts of culture with regard to death. It then describes how these conflicts are expressed differently among characters, but still arrive at two basic principles of old versus new cultural expressions and generational differences in respect of those who came before.

From the Paper:

"Death is treated differently, when the death is not welcomed, or when those you are among when you die are connected to you by memory of your earlier days and by some semblance of how you lived as in Thought of Home. In The Moon on The Water there is a touching scene of the widow placing a treasured possession in the coffin of her dead husband, placing the mirror upon his stomach, rather than his chest as he had died with a heaviness and pain, upon his chest. (247) While in The Brothers Shu playful young people tease one another about death, as recourse for the predicament of their love. (50-51) Death in the stories of the very old, told by those who never knew them in youth is welcomed even openly longed for by those who are left behind, while in other works death of the young is an unwelcome threat or a silly expression of the overly dramatic."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Niwa Funio, Ivan Morris, trans. The Hateful Age in Goldblatt, Howard ed. Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused. New York: Grove Press. 1996.
• Bi Feiyu, John Balcom, trans. The Ancestor in Goldblatt, Howard ed. Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused. New York: Grove Press. 1996.
• Su Tong, Howard Golblatt, trans. The Brothers Shu, in Goldblatt, Howard ed. Chairman Mao Would Not Be Amused. New York: Grove Press. 1996.
• Kawabata Yasunari, George Seito' trans. The Moon on the Water in
• Sonu Hwi, Marshall, Pihl, trans. Thoughts of Home, in Peter Lee Modern Korean Literature, Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1990, pgs 203-215.

More papers on Asian Literature:

• Analytical Essay # 103000 : "Women's Experience in Modern East Asian Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 132890 : "Women's Subjective Experience in East Asian Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 89160 : "Male Dominance in Asian Literature"
• Analytical Essay # 57519 : "Asian Literature"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: