Unnatural Elements in Works of Tawada Yōko and Ogawa Yōko

Abstract

A woman growing scales which must be removed using skin-care products, or a man whose body disintegrates into dust after he left an elevator where he had spent his whole life. Modern Japanese literature is full of elements that run against our everyday experience such as these and writings of female writers Tawada Yōko and Ogawa Yōko are especially inundated by disconcerting and puzzling dreamlike scenes. What meaning are they trying to convey? What function does their inclusion in the text fulfil? How do they influence structure of their worlds? These questions pose a vexing problem for anyone attempting to analyse many of the works of contemporary Japanese literature as it is not easy to find a suitable theoretical approach to answer them. In this paper through interpretation of two shorter works by both authors E.B.'s Unfulfilled Wish by Ogawa and The Bath by Tawada) using a theoretical framework based on unnatural narratology and fictional world theory I attempt to answer these questions and show the central role these elements fulfil in both world-formation and meaning-formation of the texts. I will also point out how the usage of unnatural elements places both authors firmly into the realm of the ontology-dominated postmodern literature as defined by Brian McHale.