Abe Kobo (redirected from Kobo Abe)

Abe Kobo 

Born Mar. 7, 1924, in Tokyo. Japanese writer.

Abe graduated from the Tokyo University Medical School. In 1947 he published the collection Poems of an Unknown Poet at his own expense. The story “The Red Cocoon” (1950) brought him to the attention of the public. In 1951 he won the Akutagawa Literary Prize for the novella The Wall: The Crime of S. Karma. Abe’s early works were influenced by F. Kafka, but his later works are basically realistic. He became widely popular for his novels, which include The Fourth Ice Age (1959; Russian translation, 1965), The Woman in the Dunes (1963; Russian translation, 1966), The Face of Another (1964; Russian translation, 1967), and The Burned Map (1967; Russian translation, 1969). Abe is also the author of plays, including The Slave Hunt (1955), Ghosts Among Us (1958), Tale of the Giants (1960), The Fortress (1962), Friends (1967), and The Man Who Turned Into a Stick (1969). The main theme of Abe’s work is the conflict between man and bourgeois society that is hostile to him and the consequent alienation of the individual.

WORKS

Abe Kobo zensakuhin, vols. 1–14. Tokyo, 1972–73.
In Russian translation:
Totaloskop. Moscow, 1965.
“Sovsem kak chelovek.” In Prodaetsia Iaponiia. Moscow, 1969.

REFERENCES

Zlobin, G. “Doroga k drugim—doroga k sebe.” In Abe Kobo, Zhenshchina ν peskakh. Chuzhoe litso. Moscow, 1969.
Grivnin, V. “Trilogiia Kobo Abe.” Inostrannaia literatura, 1969, no. 10.
Sasaki Kiichi, K. Akutagawa Sakka shirizu. Abe Kobo. Tokyo, 1965.
Isoda Koichi. “Bukokusekisha-no shiten.” Bungakukai, May, 1966.

V. S. GRIVNIN