“Polite Lies” by Kyoko Mori: Language as Resistance
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.main##
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.sidebar##
Abstract
The article focuses on the book “Polite Lies” by a contemporary Japanese American author Kyoko Mori where she explores the essential problems of Japanese/American social and cultural milieu, formulating a radical verdict on the Japanese language and culture as Polite Lies. Besides being a literary genre, Mori’s book introduces a new vision in a long-standing “politeness discourse” by a wide range of social science researchers, anthropologists, pragmalinguists, sociolinguists. She definitely knows a lot more about this issue, suggesting underlying assumption.
Being a transnational bicultural writer, she does not feel marginalized in America neither by ethnos nor by gender, and what is important – she feels utter alienation in Japan, the country of her childhood. In this book, Kyoko Mori considers a variety of subjects: the role of ethnicity, gender and feminism, personal relationship with the inherited culture and her right for personal freedom in choosing culture and language. She creates the image of “home” as an emotional and spiritual space rather than an ethnical location, emphasizing the primacy of personal identity over gender and ethnicity.
Kyoko Mori, unlike most Asian American writers, avoids stereotypical images of Japan, as well as a stereotypical literary motif of survival and assimilation in America. Neither is she trapped by a leading theme of Asian American canon – a dramatic search for identity in a new world. Her writings manifest that she has no dilemma provoked by the conflict with the older generation of immigrants. In “Polite Lies” she analyzes those aspects of Japanese culture which restrain her freedom, which caused her to reject her own roots, and which, in fact, are responsible for her mother’s suicide that became a form of tragic escape. Realizing all these, she chooses the only possible way – to resist by speaking and writing in English, by uncompromising analysis of the hidden ethnic phenomenon of Japaneseness that could never be justified by codified ethic norms.
Kyoko Mori chooses English as the language of her “voice”. In her memoir, she explains that her mother tongue does not give her freedom of self-expression and diminishes her as a woman and as a human being. Expanding on this problem, Kyoko Mori creates a central image of “polite lies” which embodies general metalinguacultural, sociocultural, psychological observations, as well as delineates the author’s personal drama. She refers to the “polite lies” as to an inherent linguistic and cultural feature of Japanese culture, outlining the inner space – finding evidence in the personal drama of her mother’s life. The book incorporates genre signifiers which are relevant to analytical and personal essays as well as to story genre that unveil the deep cultural roots of “polite lies” and Japanese women’s social, psychological and linguistic vulnerability. Kyoko Mori’s book is a synthetic genre in which the artist’s imagination vibrates with facts and analytical observations that create the images of Japan’s past and present filled with impressions, thoughts side by side with lyricism and artistic psychologism and, besides, what is obvious – reveals her resistance, radical decision to escape and never to return to Japan.
How to Cite
##plugins.themes.bootstrap3.article.details##
Kyoko Mori, Asian American literature, Japanese American literature, Japanese culture, Japanese language, multiculturalism, language as resistance
ЛІТЕРАТУРА
Біляніна Т. С., Ліпіна В. І. “Вода й мари” Кьоко Морі: поетика заголовка // Закарпатські філологічні студії. № 8. Т. 1. 2019a.
Біляніна Т. С., Ліпіна В. І. Метаморфози мемуарного жанру в творчості Кьоко Морі // Кременецькі компаративні студії. Вип. IX. 2019b.
Березкина (Липина) В. И. Становление современной английской прозы. Днепропетровск: Изд-во ДГУ, 1993.
Brown P., Levinson S. Politeness: Some universals in language use. Cambridge, 1987. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
Forster E. M. A Passage to India. Mariner Books, 1965.
Gudmundsdóttir G. Borderlines: Autobiography and Fiction in Postmodern Life Writing. Amsterdam, 2003. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401201063
Isbister D. A Transnational Feminist Reading of Kyoko Mori’s Polite Lies // Global Perspectives on Asian American Literature / Huang Guiyou and Wu Bing (eds). Beijing, 2008.
Lee R. The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation. Princeton, NJ, 1999. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7t0vn
Ling Jinqi. Identity Crisis and Gender politics: Reappropriating Asian American Masculinity // An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature / edited by King-Kok Cheung. New York, 1997.
Mizusawa K. The Textual Inscription of Self: Place in the Retrospective Childhood. A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in English in the University of Canterbury. University of Canterbury, 2000. URL: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/11357/mizusawa_thesis.pdf;sequence=1 (дата звернення: 28.03.2022).
Mori K. The Dream of Water: A Memoir. New York, 1996.
Mori K. Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures. New York, 1999.
Neustadter R. Found in Transition: Japan, Identity and Assimilation in the Memoirs of Mura and Mori // Japan Studies Association Journal. Vol. 6. 2008.
Nwoye O. G. Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face // Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, 1992. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(92)90092-P
Pavlenko A., Blackledge A., Piller I. and Teutsch-dwyer M. (eds). Multilingualism, Second Language Learning and Gender. Berlin, New York, 2001. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110889406
Said E. W. Orientalism. New York, 1979.
Said E. W. Culture and Imperialism. London, 1993.
Scollon R. and Scollon S. W. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. Oxford, 1995.
Smith S. A poetics of women’s Autobiography. Marginality and the fictions of Self Representation. Bloomington, 1987.
Usui M. The Trauma Caused by Mother’s Deaths in Virginia Woolf and Kyoko Mori // Doshisha. Literature. No. 45, 2002.
徳永紀美子。One Bird における成長物語を支えるもの // 熊本県立大学文学部紀要。第7巻、2000．
渡辺佳余子。キョウコ・モリの新製品に見られる変容 // 東京成徳短期大学紀要. 2009年、第42号.
渡辺佳余子。キョウコ・モリの祖国日本--新移民の立場から // 東京成徳短期大学紀要. 2006年、第39号.
野崎京子。アジア系アメリカ文学に描かれたオリエンタル・フェイスと沈黙 //京都産業大学論集。 外国語と外国文学系列 1991/04/01.号 18.
野崎京子。アジア系アメリカ文学の新展望に向かって : キョウコ・モリと作品 // Acta humanistica et scientifica Universitatis Sangio Kyotiensis. Foreign languages and literature series 24. 1997.
野崎京子。強制収容とアイデンティティ・シフト : 日系二世・三世の「日本」と「アメリカ」. 京都, 2007.
飯田深雪。日系アメリカ女流作家の視点から見た異文化としての日本「近代家族の家父長制」: Kyoko Moriの『Shizuko’s Daughter』を中心に。立教大学ランゲージセンター紀要2001.
REFERENCES
Bilianina T. S. and Lipina V. I. (2019a), “ ‘Voda y mary’ K’oko Mori: poetyka zaholovka”, Zakarpats’ki filolohichni studiyi, No. 8, Vol. 1, pp. 130–134. (In Ukrainian).
Bilianina T. S. and Lipina V. I. (2019b), “Metamorfozy memuarnoho zhanru v tvorchosti K’oko Mori”, Kremenets’ki komparatyvni studiyi, No. IX, pp. 114–122. (In Ukrainian).
Berezkina (Lipina) V. I. (1993), Stanovleniye sovremennoy angliyskoy prozy, Izdatel’stvo DGU. (In Russian).
Brown P. and Levinson S. (1987), Politeness: Some universals in language use, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Forster E. M. (1965), A Passage to India, Mariner Books. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
Gudmundsdóttir G. (2003), Borderlines: Autobiography and Fiction in Postmodern Life Writing, Amsterdam. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401201063
Isbister D. (2008), “A Transnational Feminist Reading of Kyoko Mori’s Polite Lies”, in Huang Guiyou and Wu Bing (eds), Global Perspectives on Asian American Literature, Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, Beijing, pp. 276–289.
Lee R. (1999), The Americas of Asian American Literature: Gendered Fictions of Nation and Transnation, Princeton University Press, NJ. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt7t0vn
Ling Jinqi (1997), “Identity Crisis and Gender politics: Reappropriating Asian American Masculinity”, in An Interethnic Companion to Asian American Literature, King-Kok Cheung (ed.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 312–337.
Mizusawa K. (2000), The Textual Inscription of Self: Place in the Retrospective Childhood, A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in English in the University of Canterbury, University of Canterbury, available at: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10092/11357/mizusawa_thesis.pdf;sequence=1 (accessed March 28, 2022).
Mori K. (1996), The Dream of Water: A Memoir, Fawcett Columbine, New York.
Mori K. (1999), Polite Lies: On Being a Woman Caught Between Cultures, Fawcett Books, New York.
Neustadter R. (2008), “Found in Transition: Japan, Identity and Assimilation in the Memoirs of Mura and Mori”, Japan Studies Association Journal, Vol. 6, pp. 81–94.
Nwoye O. G. (1992), “Linguistic politeness and socio-cultural variations of the notion of face”, Journal of Pragmatics, Vol. 18, Issue 4, pp. 309–328. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(92)90092-P
Pavlenko A., Blackledge A., Piller I. and Teutsch-dwyer M. (eds) (2001), Multilingualism, Second Language Learning and Gender, Mouton de Grayter, Berlin and New York. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110889406
Said E. W. (1979), Orientalism, Vintage Books, New York.
Said E. W. (1993), Culture and Imperialism, Chatto and Windus, London.
Scollon R. and Scollon S. W. (1995), Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
Smith S. (1987), A poetics of women’s Autobiography. Marginality and the fictions of Self Representation, Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
Usui M. (2002), “The Trauma Caused by Mother’s Deaths in Virginia Woolf and Kyoko Mori”, Doshisha. Literature, No. 45, pp. 59–81.
Tokunaga Kimiko (2000), “One Bird ni okeru seichō monogatari wo sasaeru mono”, Kumamoto kenritsu daigaku bungakubu kiyō, Vol. 7, pp. 1–14. (In Japanese).
Watanabe Kayoko (2009), “Kyoko Mori no shinseihin ni mirareru hen’yō”, Tokyou Seitoku tanki daigaku kiyō, No. 42, pp. 123–134. (In Japanese).
Watanabe Kayoko (2006), “Kyoko Mori no sokoku Nihon – shin’imin no tachiba kara”, Tokyou Seitoku tanki daigaku kiyō, No. 39, pp. 47–55. (In Japanese).
Nozaki Kyoko (1991), “Ajia kei Amerika bungaku ni egakareta orientaru feisu to chinmoku”, Kyoto Sangyou daigaku ronshū, Gaikokugo to gaikoku bungaku keirei, No. 18, pp. 184–199. (In Japanese).
Nozaki Kyoko (1997), “Ajia kei Amerika bungaku no shintenbō ni mukatte: Kyoko Mori to seihin”, Acta humanistica et scientifica Universitatis Sangio Kyotiensis. Foreign languages and literature series, No. 24, pp. 172–192. (In Japanese).
Nozaki Kyoko (2007), Kyōsei Shūyou to aidentiti shifuto: Nikkei nisei, sansei no “Nihon” to “Amerika”, Sekaishisōsha, Kyoto. (In Japanese).
Iida Miyuki (2001), “Nikkei Amerika joryū sakka no shiten kara mita ibunka toshiteno Nihon (kindai kazoku no kafuchōsei): Kyoko Mori no ‘Shizuko’s Daughter’ wo chūshin ni”, Rikkyō daigaku rangēji sentā kiyō, No. 3, pp. 247–254. (In Japanese).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.