Minae Mizumura - The Fall of Language in the Age of English

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 149

Shibata Takeshi, 186

Shibue Chūsai (Mori Ōgai), 105

Shiga Naoya, 51, 136, 194

Shinchō (literary journal), 173

Shishōsetsu from left to right (An I-novel from left to right; Mizumura Minae), 2–3, 63–65

“shock of the West,” 147–52, 193, 200

Shōwa period, 51, 154, 180

Sienkiewicz, Henryk, 31

Silver Spoon, The ( Gin no saji ; Naka Kansuke), 105

Singapore, 197–98

Slavic languages, 94, 176

Smiles, Samuel, 117

Smith, Adam, 92, 96

social Darwinism, 124

Socrates, 85

Song and Lantern ( Uta andon ; Izumi Kyōka), 105

Sorrows of Young Werther, The (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe), 148

Sōseki. See Natsume Sōseki

Sous les toits de Paris (film; 1930), 51

South Korea, 193. See also Korean language

Soviet Union, 27, 34, 38, 78

Spanish colonialism, 59, 177–78

Spanish language, 41, 177, 195

Spencer, Herbert, 124

Spinoza, Baruch, 88

Stalin, Joseph, 38

Stanford University, 162, 164

Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle), 95, 104, 160

Strange Tale from East of the River, A ( Bokutō kidan ; Nagai Kafū), 105

structuralism, 52

sudden twist ( kyokusetsu ), 151. See also “shock of the West”

Superstar (Chinese company), 164

Suzuki Miekichi, 136

Swahili language, 178

Swift, Jonathan, 81

Tagalog language, 178

Tagore, Rabindranath, 70

Taishō period, 51, 153, 155, 174

Taiwan, 122, 135, 187, 190

Takarazuka Revue, 51

Tale of Genji, The ( Genji monogatari ; Murasaki Shikibu), 62, 68–69, 109–10, 115

Tales of Ise, The ( Ise monogatari ), 115

Tamil language, 177

Tang dynasty, 108

Tanizaki Jun’ichirō, 46, 68, 105, 136, 180

Tao Yuanming, 149

“Task of the Translator, The” (Walter Benjamin), 95

Taut, Bruno, 191

tea ceremony, 144, 158

television, 168

Telugu language, 177

temporality, 54–66

Ten Thousand Leaves ( Man ’ yōshū ), 96, 108

Terada Torahiko, 171

Thackeray, William, 104

Thailand, 118

Thai language and literature, 179

Theory of Literature ( Bungaku ron ; Natsume Sōseki), 145–46, 149, 170

Tokyo Imperial University, 136

Tolstoy, Leo, 94, 104

Tosa Diary ( Tosa nikki ; Ki no Tsurayuki), 114–15

translation: by computer, 165–66; of French literature, 48, 50–51; and Japanese language development, 58, 107–12, 125–33; and Japanese literature and scholarship, 56, 59, 61, 68–71, 135–42, 148; and language development, 4, 89–91; limitations of, ix — xi, 63, 65, 95–96; and novel, 100–101

“Troubled Waters” (Nigorie; Higuchi Ichiyō), 105

truths, 63, 100–101, 123, 153, 167, 170, 202

Tsubouchi Shōyō, 133, 136

Tswana language, 43–44

Turgenev, Ivan, 94

Turkish language and literature, 179

typewriter, 186, 188

Uchida Hyakken, 136

Uchimura Kanzō, 111–12, 144

Ueda Bin, 136

Ueda Kazutoshi, 124

Ukrainian language, 38

United States, 21–22, 25, 59–60; colonialism of, 4, 16, 52, 119, 121–22, 137, 184–86

United States Education Mission to Japan, 184–85

universal language: and accumulation of general knowledge, 87–89, 97–99; ancient Greek as, 91–92, 167, 169; Arabic as, 60; Chinese as, 60, 114–15, 124; concept of, 40–42, 72, 74, 78–86; English as, 2–5, 40–44, 78–83, 160, 202; in Europe, 93–96; Latin as, 60, 75, 116; mathematics as, 83–84, 101, 144, 166, 171–72; and translation, 89–91, 141. See also French language

universal library, 84–85, 91–92, 161–65. See also global knowledge and communication

University of Michigan, 164

Urdu language, 172, 177

utopianism, 189

Vanity Fair (William Thackeray), 104

Verlaine, Paul, 51

vernaculars, 4, 75; in China, 114–16; in Europe, 76–77, 80, 82–83, 89–90, 116, 148, 206n.3 (chap. 3); in Japan, 108–10, 138

Vietnamese language and literature, 12, 114, 178–79, 193

Vietnam War, 190

Villon, François, 116

Voltaire (Francois-Marie d’Arouet), 49, 92

waka poetry, 51, 109, 114, 152, 206n.2 (chap. 4). See also poetry

Wang Wei, 149

War and Peace (Leo Tolstoy), 94, 104

Waseda University, 136

Watashi no kokugo kyōshitsu (My Japanese language classroom; Fukuda Tsuneari), 187

Wealth of Nations, The (Adam Smith), 96

West and non-West, as concepts, 73

Wheaton, Henry, 125

Wilde, Oscar, 81

World War II, 4, 52, 60, 69–70, 155–56, 182–86, 196, 200

written language: ideograms, 106–8, 124–25, 133, 152, 193–95, 200–201; and Internet, 163–66; invention of, 83–86, 106; phonograms, 106–8, 124, 200–201; and reading, 93, 167–68; Roman alphabet, 3, 122, 124–25, 184–89, 193, 195, 200; and spoken language, 189; visual appeal of, 200–201

Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë), 2, 104

Yamada Bimyō, 136

Yamamoto Yūzō, 136

yamato kotoba (Japanese words), 109

Yasumoto Sueko, 155

Yeats, William Butler, 81

Yiddish language and literature, 66, 70

Yomiuri Shimbun (newspaper), 183

Young Grammarians (Junggrammatiker), 124

Zionist movement, 38