Lecture
Living the (Proletarian) Life: Sata Ineko’s Autobiographical Writing
- Date
- Wednesday 3 December 2025
- Time
- Series
- Leiden Lecture Series in Japanese Studies
- Location
-
Lipsius
Cleveringaplaats 1
2311 BD Leiden - Room
- 0.02
Abstract
This lecture explores the shifting modes of life writing in the works of Sata Ineko (1904–1998), a key figure whose career mirrors major ideological and literary transformations in modern Japan. After a brief overview of the proletarian literature movement, the talk begins by situating Kyarameru kōjo kara (From the Caramel Factory, 1928) within the aesthetics and political aspirations of a moment that foregrounded the lived experiences of working-class women. It then turns to Kurenai (Crimson, 1936), a text often read within the framework of tenkō (political conversion) literature, where autobiographical narration becomes an instrument of self-justification and ideological reorientation. Finally, the lecture examines Watakushi no Tōkyō chizu (My Map of Tokyo, 1947), in which Sata reconfigures life writing in the postwar context, reflecting on memory, agency, and the reconstruction of the self after the collapse of prewar ideological structures.
By tracing Sata’s trajectory across these three works, the lecture aims to illuminate how autobiographical writing functions not only as personal narrative but also as a site where political pressures, social identities, and literary conventions intersect. Sata’s evolving approach to writing the self offers a lens through which to reconsider the relationship between ideology and personal testimony in 20th-century Japanese literature.
About the speaker
Stefano Romagnoli is an Associate Professor of Japanese Language and Literature at Sapienza University of Rome. His research focuses on modern and contemporary Japanese literature, particularly on war and travel writing, identity issues related to ethnicity and gender, and political theatre.