À la recherche du mot parfait : Yasunari Kawabata, Tristesse et beauté (Utsukushisa to kanashimi to, 1965)
Looking for the Perfect Word: Yasunari Kawabata, Beauty and Sadness (Utsukushisa to kanashimi to, 1965)

Summary/Abstract: The starting point of the present study is the analysis of the title of Kawabata’s novel Beauty and Sadness (Utsukushisa to kanashimi to, 1965) . The study embraces a perspective based on both the linguistics and semiotics of culture. Our purpose is to trace the profile of the idea of humanism foregrounded by the Japanese writer in an epoch of identity crisis haunted by ideological and ideologising spectres. Yasunari Kawabata attempts here the daunting task of contemplating new horizons of knowledge with a view to capturing the multi-dimensional universe of the inner self through innovative narrative devices. The writer thus tries to establish an aesthetic philosophy in which words set in a new architecture can give rise to new symbols and significations.

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