Mishima, Yukio - David W. Atkinson (essay date winter 1989)
David W. Atkinson (essay date winter 1989)
SOURCE: Atkinson, David W. “Alienation in the Novels of Yukio Mishima.” The International Fiction Review 16, no. 1 (winter 1989): 56-64.
[In the following essay, Atkinson contends that the pursuit of freedom and beauty lead to alienation in Mishima's novels.]
Few novelists dominate twentieth-century Japanese fiction as does Yukio Mishima. Born on January 14, 1925 to an upper middle-class family in Tokyo, Yukio Mishima distinguished himself early as a brilliant student, graduating from Gakushuin or Peers' School in 1944. While still in school, Mishima published his first significant work Hanazakari no Mori (1941; The Forest in Full Flower), which expresses many of the ideas and influences that had a continuing impact on Mishima's writing throughout his life. While Mishima produced over twenty-five pieces of major fiction, as well as short stories, plays, and critical works, it...
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