#p:%

I 

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A

wish my work as 
a  novelist',  de-
clares Kenzaburo 
Oe, 'to  helpi both
those whoexpress 
themselves 
in
words  and  their
readers  to  over-\
^ f ne  their o.wn

sufferings  and the sufferings of
their time and to c^re their souls
of their wounds'. ($. 127). This
statement, which has the foijce of
a solemn declaration, brings powerfully  to
mind a similar one made by Chinua Achebe
about three decades ago. These are weighty
statements indeed. And very re-assuring too,
especially  in  this  'post-structural',  'post-
modern',  'post-colonial',  'post-Marxist'
'post-humanist'  era  in  which  everything;
every  value,  seems 
to  have  been
'deconstructed'out of humanising relevance,
with old social and epistemolpgical  staples
such as meaning, knowledge, history, truth,
beauty, even morality and justice destabilised
by theoretical undecidabilities.

%  Attention  has  shifted  from  literature  as  a
|ransitivf medium of social and cultural ex-
chatige to literature as an arrogant, self-suf-
ficient, autolectic  'text', a dehydrated, dis-
embodied thing rendered thoroughly incom-
prehensible by turgid, impenetrable theoris-
ing. All truths become fictions. All knowl-
edge evaporates  in  an  abyss  of  existential
emptiness.  Having assassinated  the  author
and  dumped  him/her  in  an  unmarked,
'undecidable'  grave,  the  theorist,  self-
crowned,  roars  into  pedantic  prominence,
advertising  a  readerly  competence  which
clarifies neither who this reader is or is meant
to be, nor the parameters on which his/her
'competence' is based. In this high-voltage,
peacock-throne affair, the 'theorist1 is king,
the new Hollywood-type superstar, strutting
self-contentedly  from  one  ivory  tower  to
another gathering at each stop a captive band
of  apostles  whose  followership  is  largely

literature (nay all art) can
hardly accomplish its ha-
TBanandhumanistprojeet?

fourth 

!:y|l:: 

. 
jl 
#;'1. 

In Japan's Dual Identity:
A Writer's Dilemma, the
essay in this book,
Kenzaburo Oe articulates
a  robust  critique  of con-
temporary Euro-American
cultural-literary  theories,
especially  the  reptacivist
fallacy  embodied  by  the
prefix  'post-'  itself based
on the assumption that 'when some cultural;
theory  had  been  established,  a  new  one
could be made to follow it simply by adding
the prefix 'post-' to the existing one' (P- 86);
Oe criticises the refusal or inability pf con^
1:|emporary 
to  taccept  a
sjlnchronicity of a variety of ideas and theo-
ries, its almost automatic process of' accept-
ing'  and  'discharging'  borrowed ideas (p.
99).

theorising 

Of  even  graver  pertinence  is  the  foreig<|::
provenance of these theories and ideas and
their  'one-way  journey  from  abroad'  (p.
88). Oe is concerned that 'the eyes and ears
of the Japanese intelligentsia have been di-
rected  towards  the  West  since  the  Meiji.
Restoration' (p. 80), an attitude which has
worked wonders on the technological plane
but which in the cultural realm has fostered
a large measure of uneasy dependency. This
condition is in turn responsible for the dis-
couragement  of  the  growth  and develop^
ment of an indigenous cultural theory:

'With only a few exceptions, the Japanese
were unable to establish a cultural theory of
their own, and despite the enthusiasm they
engendered, the theories imported from else-
where essentially  had  nothing  to do with
Japan, which can be seen from the fact that
they now seem as remote and foreign as they
did at the very outset' (p. 96),

Just substitute the words 'Japan' a&d 'Japa-

NIYI OSUNDiyRE

anchored gin their blissful  inability to com-
prehend |ne master's super texts. Tig liter-
ary  idiom  has  graduated  from  conciit  to
conundrum;  the critic, far  from  being %e
age-old facilitator and mediator whose own
^responses enrich the original discourse, has
'post-modernised'  into  an  oracle,  a sup-
posed interpreter who himself needs a train
Of other interpreters.

The  'theorist' is;:the  new culture  hero of
academe;  the  old,  revered  vocations  of
scholar, intellectual, or teacher  have been
'deconstructed'  into  helpless  irrelevance,
the tenure track and the academic journals
which ensure  a sure  footing  on  it  having
been most heroically  taken over by trendy
pundits. Literary  discourse  seems to have
entered  a  'post-cptical',  'post-clarity'  pe-
riod. Shall we say welcome to the era of the
'gaudy  patter'? The  'literary  pessimisim'
spawned by post-structuralism described by
Alvin Kernan as the 'darker forms of struc-
turalism'  (p.  165)  has  shifted  focus  from
literature as a social construct to literature as
abstract textuality. In this fashion of think-
ing, not only the parole, the actual practice
of discourse is flawed; the very langue, the
foundational matrix of language, is slave to
a  disabling  indeterminacy.  When all texts
are thus deemed  to be inadequate, incom-
plete, fragmentary,  volatile,  and  eternally
contradictory, how can we reach out to that
relative predictability, that romantic ideal,
thatepistemological stability without which

nese' here, and you would think that Oe had
contemporary  Africa  in  mind.  His  passion
for indigeneity without zenophobia, for au-
thenticity without exclusi vism is at one with
that of several African  writers and  thinkers
who  have  called  attention  to  the  danger
inherent in an uncritical and slavish  accept-
ance of theories which originated in  foreign
lands  without  an  intelligent  effort  to  test
their suitability  for  their target domain  and
its own peculiarities. Theories,  ideas, even
prejudices  spawned  in  the  ferment  of  for-
eign  history  and  culture  are  embraced  by
many African  intellectuals and foisted  on a
compliant African  audience. To'some this is
part of Africa's  'post-colonial' blessing, but
to the  more discerning  this  'cargo-mental-
ity' is nothing short of a re-colonial  project.
Ama Ata Aidoo made a similar  observation
before  Kole Omotoso  gave  it the  necesary
emphasis in a recent  article:

and 

'However liberating for western culture post-
modernism 
post-
structuralism  and  post-colonialism  have
been, there is no doubt that they  have  been
anything  but  obfuscation  for  African  cul-
ture.'  (European  Incorporation  of  Third
World  Literature,  Omotoso,  1995,  in
memeo)

In  addition  to  this  Omotoso  also  sees

these  theoretical  trends  as  a  'simple
story  of  Euro-American  diversion  of
attention  from  what  needs  to be  the  priori-
ties of African literary concern' (p. 3). There
is an  urgent  need  therefore  to  free  African
thinking  from  the  trammels  of  its  'Euro-
American pace-setter(s)'  (p. 4) and  liberate
African  discourse  from  'dogmatic  and  fa-
natical'  Western  critical  canons.  In  a  nut-
shell there is acrying necessity to decolonize
post-colonialism  itself.

The striking similarly (even coincidence) of
these African views and those of Kenzaburo
Oe, a Japanese, must tell us something about
the essential  universality  of  true  literature,
its rooted, yet mobile capability,  its peripa-
tetic possibilities.  Oe's  canvas  is wide,  his
strokes bold and definitive. In his experien-
tial amplitude, in the unbound geography of
his  vision,  is  a  sensibility  and  a  sympathy
which can be clearly described as  'African',
a passionate  engagement  with  society  and
fearless interrogation of its vital institutions
- those concerns  which  having  been  'post-
modernised'  in 'post-industrial'  parts of the
world, are now increasingly regarded as the
laggard  preoccupations  of  'Third  World'
aesthetics.

Thus Japan, the Ambiguous  and Myself,

the  title  essay  which  was  also  his  Nobel
Prize speech in  1994 is both a  re-definition
and  a  re-confirmation  of  the  writer's  en-
gagement with a complex country. His com-
patriot  and  predecessor  on  the Nobel  plat-
form,  Yasunari  Kawabata,  had  titled  his
own  lecture  Japan,  the  Beautiful,  and
Myself twenty six years earlier. Oe's evalu-
ation of Japan, without being less patriotic is
more hard-headed and more problematic. It
is  a sympathetic  interrogation  of  the  Japa-
nese soul, a brief but sincere excursion  into
its history and a critical consideration  of the
'ambiguity'  of  its  'beauty'.  The  beauty  Oe
perceives  wears  no fairy  smiles and  waves
no  flag.  It  is,  in  fact,  no  rounded  or  con-
cluded phenomenon but a national ideal in a
dynamic  process  of  becoming.  Contempo-
rary Japan  for Oe is more  'ambiguous'  than
'beautiful', but the supremely humanist nov-
elist  foresees  a  complex  beauty  emerging
from  the present  uneasy  ambiguity.

And  with  rational  patriotism  and  rare  can-
dour, Oe recognises himself as the citizen of
a nation stampeded  into  'insanity  in enthu-
siasm  for  destruction'  both  on  its own  soil
and that of neighbouring nations (p. 116), 'a
country  stained  by their own  history  of ter-
ritorial  invasion'  (p.  117).  Recounting  Ja-
pan's  'annexation  of  Korea  and  its  war  of
aggression against China'  (p. 59) Oe recog-
nises  the  irony  in  the  status  of  Japan  as  a
nation  that  'has  always  been  an  aggressor
towards those nations among which it should
count  itself  (p.  61).'The  burden  of  that
knowledge', Oe confesses  'weighs  heavily
on  me'  (ibid.). And  in  a  flash  of  visionary
optimism, he foresees a Japan in searchof  'a
lifestyle  that does not pose a threat to other
Asian neighbours' (p. 73), a people who opt
for  'the principle of permanent peace as the
moral basis for their rebirth'  (p.  119) genu-
inely  committed  by  a  determination  to
'establish  the  concept  of  universal
humanity'(p.  120).

Universal  humanity. That is the  sublime
ideal  which  Kenzaburo  Oe  preaches
and which his works so tre-
mendously  exemplify.  In
The Catch for  instance,
a  short  story  published
in  1958 (when  he was
just  23)  and  which
won the  Akutaqawa
Prize,  Oe  tells  a
grippingly  imagi-

KENZABURO
OE

Theories, ideas, even
prejudices spawned in
the ferment  of foreign
history and culture are
embraced by many Afri-

can intellectuals and
foisted  on a compliant

African  audience.

native story of a back American pilot caught
and imprisoned  by some villagers in a Japa-
nese  country-side.  The  captive  was  treated
like  a  strange  animal  in  a  cellar  where  he
remained  shackled  and dehumanised.  But  a
strong  bond  soon  developed  between  the
imprisoned alien and the village boys, a bond
which revealed the inherent humanity in each
party  and  drastically  shortened  the  distance
created  by  racial  and  age difference.  But  as
this  process  of  discovery  and  communion
was  approaching  a  stage  of  maturity,  the
Negro airman was killed and the village boys
lost  the  'catch'  who  became  a friend.  Awe-
struck and totally dazed, the boys just  could
not comprehend  the mad logic of the behav-
iour  of  adults.  For  them  the  whole  incident
was a traumatic process of initiation, a rite of
brutal  becoming.  'I  was  no  longer  a  child',
confessed the young protagonist who through-
out was closest to the captured  Negro.

The Catch is Oe's commentary  on the irra-
tionality  and  destructiveness  of  war,  in  this
case the Pacific  war (1941-45) which  shook
Japan and devastated  the prosperous  culture
of Okinawa. In the end it is the entire warring
society  that  becomes  captive the  stench  of
blood and mayhem spreading like a choking
miasma, enveloping  the whole land and ris-
ing to the startled  sky.

War destroys, sometimes utterly. But one of
the salient functions  of art is to heal, to show
the war-ravaged psyche of a country the path
to  self-recovery  and  fortify  its  people  with
adequate moral deterence. What keeps strik-
ing us  like  a  powerful  refrain  in Japan  the
Ambiguous,  and  Myself  is  Oe's  abiding
faith  in the power of  art to cure and  restore.
His family life provides a personal testimony
to  these  ideals.  His  first  born,  Hikari,  was
born  mentally  handicapped.  As  a  child  he
only responded to the chirping of birds, not to
human voices. He was 'mute' until the age of
six  when  a  pair of  water  rails  provoked  his
first articulate sentence. From then on opened
his  channel  of  communication  with  other
humans, this miracle child who grew up to be
a  music  composer.  In  Oe's  words,  Hikari
'was awakened  by the voices of birds to the
music of Bach and Mozart'  (p.  127).

Japan,  the  Ambiguous,  and  Myself
presents  Kenzaburo  Oe as a native  of  Japan
and citizen of the world. Rooted, yet cosmo-
politan, he ranged with relevant ease through
the  literatures  of  Asia  and  Europe.  Of  par-
ticular significance  here is his apprehension
of  the history  of Japanese  literature  and  his
compassionate  recognition  of  younger  tal-
ents.  To  adapt  a  Yoruba  idiom,  this  is  a
rooster so mindful  of the struggle of  fledge-
ling chicks. Oe takes us forcibly  back to the

ideals  of  justice,  freedom,  beauty,  truth,
morality, compassion; advocates a  rejection
of  that  militarism  which  goads  stronger  na-
tions into the subjugation  of weaker ones, or
richer  individuals  into  the  oppression  of
poorer ones. He is champion  of those  values
and virtues which have gone out of fashion in
this  'post-humanist'  era  and  its  philosophy
of nihilistic anxiety. Like Daisaku  Ikeda, his
prominent  compatriot,  Oe  holds  the  belief
that:

'The  society  that  understands  nothing  but
snatching  from  others  is  no  better  than  a
world of thieves and looters... Its inhabitants,
though  they  wear  clothes  of  the latest  fash-
ion,  deserve  to  be  called  a  herd  of  wild
beasts.' (p. 33)

A man with a mission  and a vision in an age
of deconstructed  consciousnesses and resur-
gent anarchism, Kenzaburo Oe is a writer so
clearly, so usefully  aware of his place in the
world,  and  equally  clear  about  where  he
thinks this world should be heading. Japan,
the  Ambiguous,  and  Myself  is  written  to
heal our angst and restore decent  humanism
to  our  encounter  with  one  another  and  the
world.  In  the  author's  own  words,  it  is  de-
signed  'to  be  of  some  use  in  the  cure  and
reconciliation of mankind' (p. 128). The book
is both a challenge  and  a  covenant.GR

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