Readers in the West are embracing Japan’s bold women authors
Writers such as Murata Sayaka and Oyamada Hiroko have drawn fresh attention to Japanese literature
MURATA SAYAKA has long kept company with imaginary friends. She first conjured them up as a child, while enduring bullying at school and hectoring at home. Her parents forced her to practise cooking and encouraged “girlie” behaviour, thinking that would one day help attract a rich husband. “I didn’t feel like my body, my life, belonged to me,” Ms Murata (pictured) says. She dreamed of flying away, on a spaceship with her fantastical companions, to a planet where she would belong.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “A world of their own”
Culture April 29th 2023
- Ukrainian film-makers are capturing the realities of war
- Psychedelic music by an Australian nun is an uncanny pleasure
- Readers in the West are embracing Japan’s bold women authors
- “Revolutionary Spring” brings to life the drama and daring of 1848
- Asset managers control a growing share of society’s essentials
- ChatGPT raises questions about how humans acquire language
From the April 29th 2023 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Culture
Ovation inflation has spread from Broadway to London’s West End
Why do dud plays get standing ovations?
Are mystics kooks or valuable disrupters?
A realist’s refreshing take on mysticism
Sex and Snow White: how Grimm should children’s books be?
The German authors suggest very, but today trends run the opposite way
Jimmy Lai’s trial is a headline-worthy example of injustice
A new biography aims to keep the public’s attention on the pro-democracy tycoon
Millennials and Gen Z are falling hard for stuffed animals
Plushies are cute, cuddly and costly
Ten years after the Charlie Hebdo attack, satire is under siege
Public support is waning for the right to offend