24th Annual Student Research Conference
Social Disorientation: A Historical and New Critical Analysis of Shusake Endo's Silence
Devin A. Heier
Dr. Hena Ahmad, Faculty Mentor
In his novel, Silence (1969), Shusaku Endo criticizes the theology that fosters the idea that Eastern and Western worlds are the same. Endo asserts that the Japanese world is without distinctions and boundaries, a world that is insensitive to God, sin and even death. Endo depicts how his characters, through their spiritual relationships, seek to discover a life beyond the physical world. Francis Mathis in her article, "Shusaku Endo: Japanese Catholic Novelist," notes that critics and scholars in the West portray Japan as a swampland in which everything foreign, including Christianity, is swallowed up or transformed. This paper will examine Endos text through a historical and new critical lens, focusing on how growing up Catholic in Japan impacted, formed, and shaped his criticism of Catholicism.
Keywords: Silence
Topic(s):Asian Studies
Japanese
English
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 2-1
Location: VH 1236
Time: 8:00