Politics, Porn and Parody in Koi suru genpatsu (2011) by Takahashi Gen’ichirō

• Main Author: Mazza, Caterina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Edizioni Ca’ Foscari 2019-06-01
• Series: Annali di Ca’ Foscari: Serie Orientale
• Subjects: Takahashi Gen’ichirō. 3/11 Literature. Contemporary Japanese Literature. Parody.
• Online Access: https://edizionicafoscari.unive.it/riviste/annali-di-ca-foscari-serie-orientale/2019/55/politics-porn-and-parody-in-koi-suru-genpatsu-2011/

This paper seeks to show how Takahashi Gen’ichirō exploits parody to show the critical function of self-reflexive literature in the novel Koisuru genpatsu. Coherently with his experience as a political activist in the sixties, Takahashi interprets literature as a revolutionary act of resistance; it can be argued that he broadly embraces the conception of art – ideally inherited by Marcuse’s aesthetic – as a space for thought and action that makes resistance to the social status quo possible. Through the analysis of significant elements of the novel’s peritexts and epitexts, this article tries to reconstruct the web of signifiers that constructs the novel, in order to show how – in Takahashi’s concept of literature - every act of speech needs to be placed in a social structure, where the agency of discursive subjects always modifies the signifying process.