Black humor in the Japanese-Language Literature :Huang Ling-Zhi in Post-War Taiwan

SHIMOOKA, Yuka

doi:2018.6.1.49

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 6(1); 2018 > Article

Article

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2018;6(1): 49-61.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2018.6.1.49

Black humor in the Japanese-Language Literature :Huang Ling-Zhi in Post-War Taiwan

Yuka SHIMOOKA

広島大学大学院文学研究科准教授

戦後台湾の日本語文学 ―― 黄霊芝小説におけるブラック․ ユーモア

Correspondence Yuka SHIMOOKA ,Email: shimooka@hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Published online: 30 June 2018.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the significance of literature written by the Japanese Language Generation in post-war Taiwan. This paper identifies the linguistic views and characteristics of the novels of Huang Ling-Zhi (1928-2016), who continued writing literary works in Japanese for more than sixty years in post-war Taiwan. Huang Ling-Zhi is a typical author of the Japanese Language Generation in Taiwan. He argues that writers are “subjects” who select and use the language most suitable for the theme of their work. His point of view about language does deconstruct linguistic nationalism. In Huang Ling- Zhi’s novels, the main characters meet unfortunate ends, but since a person’s unique thinking is given full expression, they are not tragedies, but forms of tragicomedies. The black humor of Huang Ling-Zhi’s novels is thought to be the product of Taiwan’s continued history of hardships before and after the war, and Huang Ling-Zhi’s own extreme circumstances due to illness. His novels are valuable material for Taiwanese history. In addition, the result of using black humor is that a major hallmark of his writing is the acquisition of a wider readership, which is not limited to those becoming fascinated by the Taiwanese setting.

Keywords: Huang Ling-Zhi, The Japanese Language Generation in Taiwan, Black humor, Japanese-Language Literature, Utopia

キ―ワ―ド: 黄霊芝, 台湾の日本語世代, ブラック․ユーモア, 日本語文学, ユートピア