The Woman With The Flying Head And Other Stories

Manufacturer

M.e. Sharpe

This anthology of short stories by Japanese author Kurahashi Yumiko is a collection of eleven stories that explore the themes of sexuality, mental health, and the effects of war. The stories are written in a Gothic-expressionist style that reflects the author's likely influence from Poe. The stories are thought-provoking and provocative, and represent an important aspect of Japanese women's literature.

This is an English-language anthology of Kurahashi Yumiko's short stories, whose subversive fiction defies established definitions of literature , Japan , modernity and femininity , and represents an important intellectual aspect of modern Japanese women's literature. This is an English-language anthology dedicated to the short stories of Kurahashi Yumiko (1935-), a Japanese novelist of profound intellectual powers. The eleven stories included in this volume suggest the breadth of the author's literary production, ranging from parodies of classical Japanese literature to cosmopolitan avant-garde works, from quasi-autobiography to science fiction. Her subversive fiction defies established definitions of literature , Japan , modernity and femininity , and represents an important intellectual aspect of modern Japanese women's literature. Review: Eleven dreamlike, often surreal stories published between 1963 and 1991 by Yumiko, a Japanese woman novelist whose emotionally charged prose and Gothic-expressionist sensibility suggest the probably influence of Poe. Yumiko's characters include women, amused and aroused by their sexual power, whose imaginative conjoinings with animals and supernatural beings, as well as with more conventional lovers, are vividly described in such disturbing tales as The House of the Black Cat and the wry title story, a skillful symbolic exploration of the war between mind and body. And The Long Passage of Dreams shows Yumiko's novelistic skill, in a richly developed portrayal of a daughter tormented by the conflicting influences of her dying father and surviving mother, and how she dreams her way to choosing between them, Thoughtful and provocative fiction from an obviously accomplished writer of whom one hopes we'll hear much more. (Kirkus Reviews)