Japan: Literature

[galfridian]

Setting: Fan fiction based on Hana Yori Dango, the Japanese drama adaptation of the manga. This is modern-day Japan.

Query: I have two characters who will discuss books, but my knowledge of Japanese literature is limited. I need three categories of books (1) classic works no more than 150 years old that may be on the typical Japanese school's

Comments

[inner_v0ice]

For the "chick lit" you might investigate cell phone novels, which are apparently vastly more popular than paper novels nowadays.

[shipchan]

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa is literature from around the '50's, and is one of Japan's most important writers, especially of short stories. Chick lit really isn't really big in Japan like it is here. Young women are very into 'cell phone novels', or light novels (look up 'light novel' on Wikipedia and they have a whole list) which are usually based on shojo manga and actually available here in some places. Novala Takemoto is big too.
I also would caution you from using Banana Yoshimoto because I don't think she's quite what you're looking for. She writes mostly 'for women', but is really not chick-lit in the way I think you need.
Hope that helps!

[gogoangelgunboy]

here's a list of the naoki prizewinners for the last thirty years or so:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naoki_Prize
it's a prize given for popular literature, so it might be somewhere to start? there has to be some kind of chick-lit in there SOMEWHERE *grins*
i'm with shipchan re banana yoshimoto

[sommeille]

One interesting thing to note is that on the most part the narrative mode of "chick lit" hasn't evolved to the extent that is has in the West. Notably, in the modes we might consider to be culturally equivalent genres, such as women's pop fiction and manga, one often finds explorations of dark, sexual and social themes that aren't generally socially appropriate for women to discuss or deconstruct. This is certainly true of a writer such as Banana Yoshimoto, as it also is of the very popular Yamada Eimi. A form of "chick lit," that is to say, popular women's fiction, exists in Japan, but on the most part it deals with far more mature themes and fulfils a very different social role than its Western counterpart.

That said, several years ago, there was a very popular romance novel called 世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ (Crying Out Love in the Heart of the World) by Katayama Kyoichi. It's among the sappiest semi-romances ever conceived in my mind, and it knocked Murakami Haruki's far superior romance novel Norwegian Wood right off the all-time top seller

[sommeille]

Also, I fail. Crying Out Love = proper romance. Norwegian Wood = epic semi-romance with lots of depression and death and whathaveyou.

[shortysc22]

I know you have a lot for the first two categories, but I know when I studied Japanese literature we read several stories that had won the Akutagawa Award

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akutagawa_Award