Cross-Cultural Analysis of Postwar Repatriation Narratives in Japanese and Asian Literatures

本项目通过对日本遣返文学（或称“绑架文学”）与以其他亚洲语言撰写和出版的战后移民和回归叙事之间关系的跨文化考察，有助于研究亚洲战后遣返叙事。第二次世界大战后，数以百万计的遣返者和归国者踏上了返回日本和亚洲其他国家的旅程。对这些旅程的回忆和重新诠释是大量文学作品的主题，最近对日本遣返者（hikiagesha）所写的遣返文学的研究已经开始揭示遣返对战后世界的重大和持续的影响。本项目扩大了日本遣返文学研究的范围，不仅突出了日本遣返固有的国际性质，这必然涉及跨越国界的复杂运动和来自不同背景的人之间的接触，而且还将日本遣返文学研究的见解应用于日本以外的新背景。特别是，该项目致力于探索战后遣返叙事的相互影响，这些叙事通常在特定国家历史和国家文学的背景下进行解释。这种对人物和文本双向运动的分析有望增进我们对战争记忆、战后国际关系以及文学的功能和影响的理解。

This project contributes to the study of postwar repatriation narratives in Asia by serving as a cross-cultural examination of the relationship between Japanese repatriation literature, or hikiage bungaku, and postwar narratives of migration and return written and published in other Asian languages. After World War II, millions of repatriates and returnees undertook voyages of return, both to Japan and to other countries across Asia. Memories and reinterpretations of these journeys were the topic of a significant number of literary works, and recent research on repatriation literature written by Japanese repatriates (hikiagesha) has begun to reveal the significant and ongoing influence of repatriation on the postwar world.This project expands the scope of ongoing research on Japanese repatriation literature not only by highlighting the inherently international nature of Japanese repatriation, which necessarily involved complex movements across national borders and contact between people from vastly different backgrounds, but also by applying insights from the study of Japanese repatriation literature to new contexts outside of Japan. In particular, the project is engaged in exploring the mutual influence of postwar repatriation narratives that have usually been interpreted within the context of particular national histories and national literatures. Such analysis of the bidirectional movement of both people and texts promises to enhance our understanding of war memory, postwar international relations, and the functions and effects of literature.