Abstract

SALDANA MONCADA, David Issai. First steps towards Japan: intertextual links between Salón de belleza and The House of the Sleeping Beauties. Valenciana [online]. 2022, vol.15, n.29, pp.103-131.  Epub Apr 08, 2022. ISSN 2007-2538.  https://doi.org/10.15174/rv.v14i29.574.

This work addresses the relationship between The House of the Sleeping Beauties (Nemureru bijo, 1961) by Japanese writer Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1968) and Salón de belleza (1994) by Mexican-Peruvian writer Mario Bellatin (1960). At first, some features of the reception of Japanese literature in Mexico and Peru are considered, to define the context in which Bellatin begins to develop his interest in Japan. Then the link between both works is analyzed, perceptible on several levels: from the possibility of a structural intertextual relationship, through an epigraph; it moves towards the shared use of a narrative voice and the handling of space as a place of transgression; to formulating thematic parallels that point to transcendental readings. By taking into account the author's own comments on his relationship with Kawabata's literature, it is possible to reinforce the bridge between the works, since they address on both the stylistic and the thematic, and stand as a first approach to Japanese literature. Based on this, it is possible to observe how the desire to open Bellatin's texts to other literary traditions invites us to rethink the interactions between Japanese literature and its own aesthetics, which will give way to a link that no longer depends on the discursive intermediation of European Orientalism but on a reading vis à vis between literatures.

Keywords : Bellatin; Kawabata; Intertextuality; Space; Transgression.

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