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Self-Portraits

By Osamu Dazai

Product Image: Self-Portraits

Self-Portraits

By Osamu Dazai

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Description
"Art dies the moment it acquires authority." So said Japan's quintessential rebel writer Osamu Dazai, who, disgusted with the hypocrisy of every kind of establishment, from the nation's obsolete aristocracy to its posturing, warmongering generals, went his own way, even when that meant his death-and the death of others. Faced with pressure to conform, he declared his individuality to the world-in all its self-involved, self-conscious and self-hating glory. "Art", he wrote, "is 'I'." In these short stories, collected and translated by Ralph McCarthy, we can see just how closely Dazai's life mirrored his art and vice versa, as the writer/narrator falls from grace, rises to fame and falls again. Addiction, debt, shame and despair dogged Dazai until his self-inflicted death and yet despite all the lies and deception he resorted to in life, there is an almost fanatical honesty to his writing. And that has made him a hero to generations of readers who see laid bare, in his works, the painful, impossible contradictions inherent in the universal commandment of social life-fit in and do as you are told-as well as the possibility, however desperate, of defiance.  Long out of print, these stories will be a revelation to the legions of new fans of No Longer Human, The Setting Sun and The Flowers of Buffoonery. 
Product details
Binding:
Paperback
Edition:
1
Number of Pages:
232
Release Date:
2024-02-06
Publication Date:
2024-02-06
Publisher:
Norton & Company
Languages:
Original: English
ISBN10:
0811232263
ISBN13:
9780811232265
GPSR Manufacturer Reference:
[email protected]
Weight:
280 g
Height:
133 cm
Width:
202 cm
Thickness:
19 cm
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