“In a Bamboo Grove” (Yabu no naka ) Ryūnosuke Akutagawa

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (1892 — 1927) Founder of modern Japanese literature Name: “Son [of] Dragon” Author of more than 150 short stories Inherited a mental disease from his mother Committed suicide at the age of 35 Father of a famous actor and a great composer Japan’s most prestigious literary award bears his name

Ryūnosuke Akutagawa: Between East and West Degree in English literature Translator of European authors Interest for history and traditional Japanese literature Use of Japanese classics and folklore European style of writing

“In a Bamboo Grove” (1921) Plot Traditional story told untraditionally The semantic role of details (how do details create meaning?) Points of view and narrators Who tells the truth? Who is the “someone” at the end?

Plot The plot is only one of many aspects of a work of fiction. In some works the plot is very basic and unimportant. The plot is necessary to create suspense and keep readers’ interest . The plot serves to maintain character development. There is a limited number of possible plots. One and the same story can be retold in many ways. The plot can be linear and non-linear (flashbacks and flash-forwards). The main question might be not “What happened?” but “How is it happening?”

RASHOMON: CLASSIC FILM INSPIRED BY AKUTAGAWA’S STORIES “In a Bamboo Grove” and another story, “Rashomon,” were filmed by Akira Kurosawa in 1950. RASHOMON trailer Crime witnesses