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Hiroshi Watanabe

わたなべ ひろし

Watanabe Hiroshi

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1929-09-05 （Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan）
Nationality
Japan
Languages
Japanese, French

Career

Occupations
literary critic, French literature scholar, translator, university professor
Active Years
1965-2000
Affiliations
Shimbi (literary magazine), Hosei University
Influenced By
Comte de Lautréamont (Isidore Ducasse), Franz Kafka, Charles Baudelaire

Education

University of Tokyo
Faculty of Letters / Department of French Literature
Country: Japan

Awards

Gunzo New Writers' Award
1965
Work: Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo
Organization: Gunzo (literary magazine)
Result: winner

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

On Hiroshi Noma

1969 literary criticism

A critical study of postwar writer Hiroshi Noma, examining his works and literary position in postwar Japan.

postwar literatureauthor studies

Questions of Literature

1971 critical essays

A collection of essays posing fundamental questions about contemporary literature.

contemporary literaturecritical theory

Kafka: The Enormous Struggle

1971 literary study

A study analyzing Franz Kafka's works and their philosophical background.

Kafka studiesontologymodernism

Literature of Crisis

1972 critical essays

Essays discussing the sense of crisis in postwar society from a literary perspective.

sense of crisispostwar literature

Legends of the End

1978 essays

An essay collection examining eschatological motifs in contemporary literature.

eschatologymotif analysis

Charles Baudelaire: Allegories of Modernity

1986 literary study

A scholarly study of Baudelaire's poetry and the allegories of modernity.

modern poetryallegorysymbolism

Kenzaburo Oe

1973 author study

An author study analyzing the thought and works of Kenzaburo Oe.

author studypostwar literature

Revisiting Shimazaki Toson

1994 literary study

A reexamination of Shimazaki Toson's works from a contemporary perspective.

modern Japanese literaturere-reading

Bibliography

  • On Hiroshi Noma (Shimbi, 1969)
  • Questions of Literature (Chikuma Shobo, 1971)
  • Kafka: The Enormous Struggle (Shimbi, 1971)
  • Literature of Crisis (Chikuma Shobo, 1972)
  • Journey to the Present (Shimbi, 1972)
  • On 'The Sea of Fertility' (Shimbi Bunko, 1972)
  • Kenzaburo Oe (Shimbi Bunko, 1973)
  • Kobayashi Hideo and Takiguchi Shuzo (Shimbi Bunko, 1976)
  • Abe Kobo (Shimbi Bunko, 1976)
  • Legends of the End (Shinchosha, 1978)
  • Charles Baudelaire: Allegories of Modernity (Ozawa Shoten, 1986)
  • Revisiting Shimazaki Toson (Soshusha, 1994)

Translations by Author

  • Poems of Lautréamont (Shichosha, 1968)
  • Collected Works of Lautréamont (Shichosha, 1969)
  • Study on Lautréamont (trans., Takeuchi Shoten, 1970)
  • The Method of Leonardo da Vinci (Paul Valéry, Shimbi Bunko, 1972)
  • The First Line or the Birth of the Novel (Louis Aragon, Shinchosha, 1975)
  • The Great Ordeal of the Spirit (Henri Michaux, Shimbi, 1976)

Style & Themes

Literary Style
intellectual and precise textual analysisargumentation grounded in comparative work and translations of French literature
Recurring Motifs
positioning of postwar literaturemodernism and allegorytransnationality through translation

Legacy

One of the leading literary critics of postwar Japan. Contributed to Japanese literary scholarship through research and translations of French literature, and taught for many years at Hosei University, mentoring younger scholars.

Archives

  • National Diet Library of Japan

Trivia

  • Won the Gunzo New Writers' Award in 1965 for "Mishima Yukio and Oe Kenzaburo."
  • Served as an associate professor and then professor at Hosei University, remaining a professor until 2000.
  • Known for translations and studies of French symbolist writers such as Lautréamont.