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A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction"
A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction"
A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction"
Ebook33 pages15 minutes

A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction"

By Gale and Cengage

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A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Short Stories for Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Short Stories for Students for all of your research needs.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJul 27, 2016
ISBN9781535841832
A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction"

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    A Study Guide for Mori Ogai's "Under Reconstruction" - Gale

    13

    Under Reconstruction

    Mori Ōgai

    1910

    Introduction

    One of the first modern Japanese stories, Under Reconstruction, by Mori Ōgai, was first published in 1910 as Fushinchu. Written by a well-traveled army doctor about his home country at a time of great change in Japan's history, Under Reconstruction perfectly captures the uneasy transition of an ancient, secluded nation into modern times. Today, inarguably, Japan is an influential world power at the frontier of technological development and with many important cultural exports. But as recently as 1867, Japanese borders had just opened up to outside and particularly Western influence, as a result of the downfall of the feudal system and a new emperor who admired European forms of government. Under Reconstruction alludes to this larger national narrative through a small personal crisis between a Japanese government official, Watanabe, and his former lover, a German singer on tour. They meet in a restaurant undergoing reconstruction. Half reflecting traditional Japanese aesthetics, half attempting westernized decor, the restaurant, like both Watanabe and Japan, is making an awkward effort to bridge the gulf between traditions and modernity. Under Reconstruction can be found in Modern Japanese Stories: An Anthology (1962), edited by Ivan Morris, as well as Ōgai's Youth and Other Stories (1994).

    Author Biography

    Mori Ōgai was born Mori Rintaro on February 17, 1862, in Tsuwano, Japan. The eldest son in a family of doctors who had served the feudal lord for over ten generations, Ōgai was raised in the setting and value system of the samurai, and indeed his family, as personal doctors to the lord of the Tsuwano domain, held a separate but comparable position of honor alongside the samurai

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