Common tropes and themes in Japan’s tenkō literature

What is it about?

This chapter focuses on the category of tenkō bungaku (tenkō literature), and identifies its underlying tropes and themes. A fresh look at tenkō literature, Sipos attempts a definition and classification of the literary works typically associated with tenkō based on the writers’ political experience and the subject of their narratives. While it is customary for tenkō literature works to be classified on whether the authors had truly committed to the ideological “conversion” or had done so declaratively to be freed from prison, Sipos takes a different approach. Switching the focus from the authors to the content and style of the literary pieces, he identifies two major thematic/narrative style groups within the tenkō literature category: those dealing with the topic of family and those utilizing the shishōsetsu (I-novel) literary convention, and focuses his attention on critical analyses of both groups.

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