Novelist Nakagami Kenji (to give his name in its usual Japanese order, family name first) was for much of two decades from the early 1970s seen as the great hope on the Japanese literary horizon, the renewer of prose fiction. Born and raised in an outcast burakumin community, Nakagami launched an attack from an outsider position on majority ways of thinking. By probing the origin and structure of discrimination, Nakagami altered the outlook on Japan’s supposedly homogenous culture and society. By bringing his prose closer to the oral tradition and by adopting the methods of free jazz, Nakagami attempted to dismantle the well-written novel. It was while working as a cargo handler in Tokyo that Nakagami started to explore his …
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Citation: Karlsson, Mats Arne. "Kenji Nakagami". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 December 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12634, accessed 21 November 2024.]
