En este caso se trata de la decadencia (el declive) de una familia de aristócratas después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial, sustentada por tres personajes (madre, hija e hijo) magníficamente recreados, que, cada uno a su manera, son incapaces de asimilar los cambios que se están produciendo en el Japón de la postguerra. Personajes insatisfechos, desorientados que intentan aferrarse con desesperación cada uno a una idea (tradición, amor, drogas) para comprender qué está sucediendo e intentar salir vencedores de esta lucha interna. Pero, en esta obra al menos, Dazai decide que no lo consigan (quizás el autor pensaba en sí mismo). Institutions and symbols, Volume X, No. 43, October 23, 1957, available at http://www.manasjournal.org/pdf_library/VolumeX_1957/X-43.pdf; There are some very vivid pieces throughout the book which are so tragic that they render heart-wrenching affliction that you actually feel the agony of characters and in fact feel like crying with them; I’ve not come across such deplorable reading experiences for quite some time. There is one scene where Kazuko has been given job to look after lumber pile, the officer, who allocates her the job, provides her a book which could read if she may feel bored. After end of day, she runs up to him and hands over the book; she wants to extend her gratitude to him but somehow words fail to come out from her mouth. In this distressing silence she looks at his face, and when their eyes met, tears flown down in the eyes of both. It may across as a quite simple episode to a naïve reader but an active reader would only able to understand that so powerful it is that you actually feels a deep connect with the protagonist and feels like crying with her, such is the influence of mesmerizing prose of Dazai that it brings out emotions to life. The books present contrasting choices made by the characters, the choices which represent altogether different philosophical treatments; we have Naoji who could not able to sustain ravages of life in post-war era on one hand and finds comfort in the clutches of death while Kazuko keeps on lingering with courage and bravely fights out traditional society on the desire to live rather than succumbing to the teasing embrace of death; to live at any cost, perhaps that’s the most humane instinct. There are several incidents like episode the burning of eggs of snakes and fire outbreak where you can associate with self- pity and guilt felt by the protagonist; guilt and sense of pity which may strip oneself from all veils one may have developed to comfort oneself against the chilly reality of life and existence of oneself may stand naked without false sense of comfort, and which may be quite nippy realization. A science which is postulated on the assumption that human beings are avaricious through all eternity is utterly devoid of point (whether in problems of distribution or any other aspect) to a person who is not avaricious." The story is told through the eyes of Kazuko, the unmarried daughter of a widowed aristocrat. Her search for self meaning in a society devoid of use for her forms the crux of Dazai’s novel. It is a sad story, and structurally is a novel very much within the confines of the Japanese take on the novel in a way reminiscent of authors such as Nobel Prize winner Yasunari Kawabata – the social interactions are peripheral and understated, nuances must be drawn, and for readers more used to Western novelistic forms this comes across as being rather wishy-washy.

Baba’nın da öldüğü evi terk edip, köyde bir Çin evine taşındıklarında( düştüklerinde) anne’nin hastalığı ilerlemeye başlar. Bu esnada savaşta öldüğü düşünülen oğul eve geri döner ancak dönen oğul esrarkeş ve hayatla bağı olmayan bir entelektüeldir. Kendisine bir hayrı olmadığı gibi eve de yük olmaktan öte bir eylemi yoktur. Bu bölümde anlatıcımız bir köylüye dönüşür, toprağı işlemeye başlar ve soylu gelenek realiteye boyun eğer. Bu bölümde biz Naoji’nin Akşam Yüzleri Notları ile karşılaşırız. The book talks about eminent struggle of the protagonist- Kazuko- to come in terms with the rapid changing world wherein she’s not sure about her inclination whether it's about the aristocratic heritage or the new uprising world which is derived by convenience and desires. Eventually, she battles herself to survive along a fine thread lingering between the customary world and a developing modern sphere of humanity. The nihilistic traits of grief, sadness, bleakness, suicide, absurdism and despair of life are as evident as water in a vessel of glass and I found that these traits in other major works of Dazai too - No Longer Human and Schoolgirl. In fact, it could said be authority that post-war philosophy and literature is highly inspired form these abovementioned traits- whether it may be existentialism of Sartre, absurdism of Camus or any other modern and post-modern movement of literature. The harrowing experiences of World Wars certainly contribute to sudden rise in popularity and development of these schools of thoughts in post- war times. All these art/ philosophical movements works on similar themes that existence somewhat lingers upon absurd situation of life and one has to accept this state of absurdness, and in fact that very realization is the onset of true of existence wherein one has to take responsibility of one's life. Osamu Dazai's The Setting Sun gave me a foriegn sort of feeling inside, like I felt different, not in a something is about to happen way, exactly. Different when you're yourself playing at being someone else? I wish I could match my heartbeat with its pulse and my impulses as I lapsed into its rhythm. I was creeped out. I was in awe. The best I can do is that it was the kind of foriegness that Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy had. I mean, it isn't a fantasy in the genre sense of the word. But it kinda is in my emotions. The images firing up in my mind's eyes are exactly that: a fantasy. A fantasy of victims, love, suicide, of living as dreaming in nightmares and hopes (childish hopes? I'll be able to tell the difference when I grow up). Throwing yourself on the fires fantasy. What else is there to do? Start a revolution. Emotional fantasy! Can't you just say that, Mariel? I know all about talking myself into shit too, same as Kazuko and her brother Naoji. (Is it any wonder that I kept thinking about Gormenghast? Decay, figurehead costume jewelry stage lights artistocracy, smoke and mirrors depression and love... What's real? Suicide as acting out... Perpetual teenagers... Ellipsis thoughts...)In Dazai's view, modernization stays at the basis of the changes that took place in the traditional Japanese family. Although he sees modernization as corrupting, he is hopeful that these changes could bring progress and prosperity. Hayır, bu kötü bir resim. Geçen gün çıkan resimlerinde genç ve mutlu görünüyordu. Bugünlerde çok mutlu olmalı. Bu dünya için fazlasıyla iyi” anneyi asaletinden hiçbir şey yitirmeden ölüm döşeğinde buluruz. İmparatorluğun batan güneşinden sonra, sıra annenin batışına gelmiştir. Bu bölümde anne ile kızı arasında geçen diyalog, geçen giden günlere son bir bakış gibidir ve okurken beni de imparatorun kaderini düşündürerek gereksiz hüzünlere gark etmiştir.

Y ya digo que Osamu Dazai escribe como los dioses, parece que hace sencillo lo más difícil. Esa generación casi “perdida” que se tiene que levantar tras una guerra, aquí está perfectamente reflejada en los personajes de Kazuo y de su hermano Naoji. Todos esos conflictos morales que estaba viviendo Japón en aquella época están aquí reflejados en ellos dos. Es una novela para saborear y disfrutar sin prisas. Una joya.

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a b Sakakibara, Richie (1999). Between the Defeat and the Constitution: Democracy in Dazai Osamu's Postwar Fiction. University of Michigan. p.34. Kazuko, the narrator, is a twenty-nine-year-old woman from a once-aristocratic Japanese family. She and her younger brother, Naoji, agree that class titles are not earned and that aristocrats are no more than “high-class beggars.” Their mother, however, is an exception; although she often departs from formal etiquette, her manners have the ease and elegance that mark her as a true aristocrat. The Setting Sun" presents in detail the Japanese society in the postwar period and the struggle between traditional society and modernism pictured in the struggle of an aristocratic family to overcome her past and leave its customs. The period in which the novel's action takes place is a period of transition for the characters as well as for Japan. The Western influence, especially his contemporary french symbolism, is clear in each chapter. A true japanese novel, The Setting Sun weirdly crosses that fearful line that scares western readers from eastern literature in a piece that feels universal and relevant even today.

What is it with Japanese literature, I always feel a sense of awe whenever I plunge myself into artistic universe of the country of rising sun and Osamu Dazai does no harm to the reputation of it. I find that plot development and action have often been of secondary interest to emotional issues and most of the modern Japanese authors stressed upon consciousness of narrators and perhaps that why it has resonated so well with me. Though I’ve started to read Japanese literature last year only (so couldn’t really claim myself to be master of it :P) however I find most of the modern Japanese authors- whether it is Kwabata, Abe, Mishima or Dazai for that matter- have been able to portray problems or rather ironies of human existence and so effortlessly put forth the condition of human consciousness on the canvas of art that it’s only second (to me) to modern Russian literature. You may well find traits of nihilism, existentialism well evident in the works of probably all great modern Japanese authors. I guess perhaps world war, fate of Japan in it played major role in the way modern Japanese literature has come out; for people there might have felt disaffection, utter loss of purpose and the difficulty in coping up with defeat in the World War II might have also played major role in it. Besides, Japanese society has been strongly influenced by western culture, wherein it left its aristocratic roots to rapidly developed into industrialized society; the sense of alienation in urban life, crisis of purpose must have also played a great role the way the modern literature of the country has panned out. Wolfe, Alan Stephen (1990). Suicidal Narrative in Modern Japan: The Case of Dazai Osamu. Princeton University Press. p.368. ISBN 0-691-06774-0. El ocaso/El declive (1947) de Osamu Dazai (1909-1948) nos muestra un tema recurrente en la literatura japonesa del siglo XX: la difícil transición de la tradición a la modernidad en ese país.Despite her diminished circumstances, Kazuko reveals herself as a well-educated, highly cultured, and thoughtful woman. She reads widely, and her conversation is full of references to European culture. Kazuko recalls the afternoon when a group of local children found snake eggs in her family’s garden. Thinking they might be viper eggs, she tried to burn them; when they would not burn, she buried them under a plum tree in the garden. This memory leads her to another: on the night of her father’s death, she saw a snake by his deathbed. When she went to the garden to cut flowers for his funeral, she found snakes twisted around all the trees, as though they had come out of the ground to mourn him. Her mother has hated snakes ever since. Connecting these memories, Kazuko worries she has brought a curse upon her mother by burning the eggs. Lejos de avergonzarme, me pareció que el mundo real era un organismo extraño, completamente distinto a mi propio mundo imaginario. Me asaltó una terrible sensación de abandono que jamás había experimentado y me encontré sola, gritando y gritando sin obtener respuesta en un páramo desierto bajo la luz del ocaso". This winningly naive thought by the main character, upon reading a book on economics in the wake of WWII, her first foray into such "adult" matters, is emblematic of the stance taken throughout this narrative. It says - Forget all the larger complicated political/economic/etc. analyses and concerns of collective life in times of massive upheaval and destruction and focus on one's own responses to events, however untutored and illogical. Defeatism? Possibly. But also heroic and perpetually necessary. Through his own egocentricism and resolute determination to remain authentic, Dazai wrote a book that gets to the heart of a universal individualism, while at the same time advocating for transient beauties and dissolution and suicide.

Uncle Wada acts as the head of Kazuko’s family; they seek his advice and financial support in all important practical matters. Naoji accuses him of being stingy, as he does not provide a generous allowance for Kazuko and her family and instead suggests that she should work as a governess. Uncle Wada traveled to Europe in his youth and is generally regarded as worldly and experienced. Mr. Uehara Hoye, Timothy (2011). "Styles of Truth in Dazai Osamu's Setting Sun". Voegelinian Readings of Modern Literature. University of Missouri Press. p.78. ISBN 9780826219152. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2023-05-03 22:31:03 Autocrop_version 0.0.14_books-20220331-0.2 Boxid IA40918602 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier Bu kitabımızda batan son güneştir, bu kitabı okumayacaksanız bile bu mektubu bulup okumanızı öneririm. Dazai’nin eli kulağında sonunun bu mektuba bir kat daha değer kattığı aşikar ancak o son olmasa dahi etkisinin güçlü olduğu da bir gerçek. Yaşamını baba kanının reddi, soylu ruhuna küfür ile geçirmiş, kendini “ halk dostu” olmaya adamış bu kalemin varoluşsal krizinin belgesini “ ben bir soyluyum” olarak noktalamasındaki trajediyi çemberin ne içi ne de dışında kalabilen muallaktaki Türkiye’li okur derinden hissedecektir diye düşünüyorum ve huzurlarınızdan mektuptan bir parça ile ayrılıyorum. Bebo para morir, pues vivir me resulta demasiado triste. La soledad, la melancolía, las estrecheces… la tristeza me abruma. Cuando oyes lúgubres sollozos procedentes de las cuatro paredes es que para tí no existe la felicidad. ¿Y cómo quieres que me sienta cuando me he dado cuenta de que no conoceré la felicidad ni la gloria mientras viva?“.Kazuko and Naoji’s mother goes unnamed; she is a gracious lady with perfect taste. Her elegance and consideration for others often lead her to ruin. Indeed, Kazuko regards her mother as too beautiful and sensitive to survive in the coarse atmosphere of the modern world. As such, Kazuko is grieved but not surprised by her death. Her mother is arguably unconventional in her table manners and conduct, but Kazuko and Naoji both see her as the only true aristocrat in their family. Even as she dies, her face is “so full of animation that it seemed almost to shine.” Uncle Wada