Diversity of voices, diversity of languages : one week of events and readings in Lyon and in the Rhône-Alpes region.
Kenzaburô Ôé
Kenzaburo Oe © Dorian Malovic
AUTHOR
Japan
Kenzaburô Ôé was born in 1935 on the island of Shikoku in Japan. He studied French literature, writing his thesis on Jean-Paul Sartre. His first texts were published in the 50s. In 1958, he was awarded the Akutagawa prize, the equivalent of the Goncourt, for Prize Stock, which was turned into a film titled The Catch, directed by Nagisa Oshima. Seventeen was published in 1961. Inspired by a seventeen-year-old extreme-right activist who murdered the leader of the Socialist party, this novella portrays Japan in the early 60s, with the resurgence of the Imperial party’s ultranationalism.
In 1964, the birth of his handicapped son causes an upheaval in both his personal life and the world of his novels. He drew on this dramatic event in a heartrending book, A Personal Matter, which depicts the three days following the birth.
In the 80s, Kenzaburô Ôé became interested in Latin American literature and went to Mexico where he taught at the university. He received the Nobel Prize for his lifetime work in 1994. As an original writer who rejects the values of the existing society and reflects the questions and worries of the post-war generation, Kenzaburô Ôé embodies the crisis of faith of a country caught in a headlong rush.
