I-novel

The I-novel (私小説, Shishōsetsu, Watakushi Shōsetsu) is a literary genre in Japanese literature used to describe a type of confessional literature where the events in the story correspond to events in the author's life.[1] This genre was founded based on the Japanese reception of naturalism during the Meiji period, and later influenced literature in other Asian countries as well. This genre of literature reflects greater individuality and a less constrained method of writing. From its beginnings, the I-novel has been a genre that also is meant to expose aspects of society or of the author's life.[2]

  1. ^ Fowler, Edward (1988). The rhetoric of confession: shishōsetsu in early twentieth-century japanese fiction (1. paperback printing. ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-07883-7.
  2. ^ "Japan's first 'I-novels' were written and published in 1906 and 1907". Red Circle Authors. 12 October 2020. Retrieved 12 January 2021.