He not only felt empathy for Marxism but also studied Friedrich Nietzsche, Martin Heidegger, and Karl Jaspers. It is easy to understand why at the beginning of his career Abe immersed himself in philosophical writings. A strong social conscience drives all the novels like a compelling organic force. As critics have recognized, the novels are imbued with an implicit desire for men and women, parents and children, and family or community to work for social good. Aside from imparting a sense of verisimilitude to the situations described-however absurd and irrational they would seem to be-the interruptions, false starts, and narrative shifts convey the state of suffering from which the characters in the end find it impossible to be freed periodic breaks in the flow of a story are essential to the ultimate completion of the event.Īnother intrusive characteristic in Abe’s novels that deserves mention relates to the didactic impulse. Actually, however, what appear as technical deficiencies contribute to the overall effectiveness of the author’s style. Lists of objects, minute descriptions of surface appearances, and clinical analyses of emotional responses try the reader’s patience, giving an impression of awkwardness. The sequence of time is often juggled, creating a confusion of past and present. Sometimes, it would seem, gratuitous detail clogs Abe’s narratives, slowing down the forward thrust of the action and creating what amounts to a form of static. Sexuality in many of Abe’s novels perversely turns out to exert a divisive impact on men and women, reducing them to a bestial level. The underlying irony of Abe’s narratives suggests that human beings have learned to govern many of the forces of their external environment, but they know so little about themselves that they struggle helplessly at the mercy of satanic workings that lurk in the irrational depths of the mind. Success, fruition, and fulfillment constantly evade his protagonists, who are usually depicted as well-educated people, deserving to reap the rewards of their prudence and perseverance. Conversation and human intercourse are fragmented and interrupted, contributing to a sense of incompleteness. Except for the case of The Woman in the Dunes, which is set in a remote seaside hamlet, the main action in his narratives typically takes place against the urban landscape and amid the impersonalized locations and institutions with which modern city dwellers are most familiar-hospitals, offices, laboratories, department stores, movie theaters, waiting rooms, and apartments. In Abe’s novels, human relationships are shown to be in disorder, partly reflecting the particular quality of his artistic imagination and partly reflecting his own youthful experiences. Ironically, such assertion leads to alienation, creating a Catch-22 situation and a sense of absurdity. Abe’s characters’ resistance to such pressures (or perhaps their unconscious wish to suffer) results in their desire to assert their individuality. Abe recognized, on one hand, that without cohesive units of interdependent people, human life could scarcely exist on the other hand, he also observed that people everywhere suffer under the pressure to model their behavior on conventionally accepted manners and mores. Gradually, from the underlying absurdity and irrationality of the imaginary situations about which he wrote, a kind of gallows humor emerged, giving a sense of situation comedy, albeit black comedy. At first, Abe treated such matters mostly in a serious way. Human loss, disappearance, allocation of responsibility, anguish, and futility stand out as the main issues that figure in Kōbō Abe’s (Ma– January 22, 1993) writings.
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