Negotiating identity

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Anne H. Thelle, originally from Sheffield and raised in Japan, now resides in Oslo, where she balances research at the University of Oslo with teaching intercultural communications at the Norwegian Military Academy. She has authored several books on Japan for young adults in Norway, and this work is a revised version of her 2007 doctoral dissertation. Nakagami Kenji, born in 1946 in a burakumin ghetto in Shingu, is recognized as a pivotal figure in post-war Japanese literature. He gained prominence in the mid-seventies as the first post-war-born writer to win the Akutagawa Prize and the first from a burakumin background to achieve significant literary acclaim. His work straddles the avant-garde and the nostalgic roots of Japanese literature, engaging with traditional narratives while simultaneously challenging them. This study focuses on Nakagami’s 1989 novel, Kiseki (Miracles), exploring his oscillation between nostalgia and avant-garde innovation. Central to the analysis is the theme of negotiation—between cultures, languages, and borders. As a minority writer confronting the historical discrimination faced by his community, Nakagami tackles the literary genres that perpetuate these constraints, illuminating the struggles of those seeking to transcend cultural and historical limitations.