|
Tsujishousetsu, also translated as street novel or flash fiction, was a part of 建艦獻金計畫 launched in 1943 by the Patriotic Association for Japanese Literature (日本文學報國會, Nihon Bungaku Hokokukai), an agenda that primarily instructed novelists' creation, on-street display, and subsequent publication of their flash fictions promoting national policies within 400 words. In Taiwan's literary communities' response to this agenda, the first batch of Tsujishousetsu was exhibited in "『海』の文學と美術街頭移動展" on Navy Anniversary Day in the same year. In previous research, Tsujishousetsu was often regarded as essays or everyday notes due to its brevity and has not been systematically analyzed. This study intends to give a comprehensive analysis of Tsujishousetsu with a review of the Tsujishousetsu-related materials in their historical contexts. The review shows that from 1943 to 1945, a total of 74 pieces of Tsujishousetsu were produced by 39 Taiwanese and Japanese writers in Taiwan, occasionally appearing in various publications as supposedly one of the most commonly seen genres catering to the government during wartime. Given Tsujishousetsu served to promote national policies, this study places special emphasis on its media for promotion and offers an analysis of authors, forms of promotion, publications. This study also re-examines the lesser-known Tsujishousetsu authors and their inner-community relationships along with publication properties, such as target audience, issue dates, etc., so as to take a deeper look into the way that the writers were mobilized during wartime. In addition to being more than a promotion tool, Tsujishousetsu marked the first time in the history of Taiwan literature that the writers delved into and produced such a great quantity of flash fictions. Therefore, this study investigates the textual features of Tsujishousetsu written within the limitations-short length and catering to the government-and compare them with other contemporary works to present the uniqueness of Tsujishousetsu. Lastly, this study aims to provide a new perspective of wartime mobilization of writers from a Tsujishousetsu standpoint and put Tsujishousetsu into a proper context in the history of Taiwan literature under Japanese Colonial Rule.
|