{"title":"Donald Keene","description":"\u003cp\u003eDonald Keene’s works offer profound insights into \u003cem\u003eJapanese literature\u003c\/em\u003e and traditional performing arts, blending scholarly precision with passionate appreciation. Readers can explore in-depth studies of Nō theatre, Bunraku puppetry, and the enduring cultural currents shaping Japan’s literary heritage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIdeal for enthusiasts of \u003cstrong\u003eArts \u0026amp; Culture\u003c\/strong\u003e and those seeking authoritative \u003cem\u003eeducational references\u003c\/em\u003e, Keene’s books illuminate the nuances of Japanese creativity and the expatriate experience with clarity and erudition.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"japanese-literature-by-donald-keene-9784805307533","title":"Japanese Literature","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this thorough and fascinating volume, Donald Keene introduces his readers to the sweep of Japanese literature in all its great variety and unusual beauty, from earliest times to the mid-nineteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlthough Keene is careful to point out that \u003ci\u003eJapanese Literature\u003c\/i\u003e is \"neither a systematic outline nor a work of reference, but a highly personal appreciation of certain aspects of Japanese literature which I believe to be of especial interest to the Western reader,\" every genre and style, from the somber beauty of Noh plays to the eroticism of seventeenth-century novels, is included. The translations have been chosen not only for their accuracy but also for their readability as English prose and poetry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eA brief but informative introduction is followed by four essays on 'Japanese Poetry', 'The Japanese Theater', 'The Japanese Novel', and 'Japanese Literature under Western Influence', which collectively provide both a succinct history of the literature and culture of classical Japan and a guide to critical understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book's excellence has long been established, and its numerous reprintings, including the current edition, attest to its enduring appeal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46853673124076,"sku":"9784805307533","price":34.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/25465913483898.jpg?v=1759213880"},{"product_id":"expatriates-of-no-country-by-donald-keene-9780231214452","title":"Expatriates of No Country","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor more than thirty years, the acclaimed novelist Shirley Hazzard and the renowned scholar of Japanese literature Donald Keene maintained a remarkable epistolary friendship. Brought together by the death of a mutual friend in the late 1970s, they discovered a profound connection built on mutual affinities for literature and culture and common values of humanism and cosmopolitanism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eExpatriates of No Country\u003c\/em\u003e presents Hazzard and Keene's correspondence, offering readers a new and intimate perspective on the work and achievements of these towering figures. Both left behind their countries of birth, and they shared experiences of displacement, estrangement, and fashioning new lives and selves in adopted homelands.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHazzard, who departed from Australia as a teenager without completing her formal education, led an expatriate life in New York and Italy as she attained literary fame. Keene, a pacifist who served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, devoted himself to the literature and culture of Japan, where he became revered. Their erudite and elegantly written letters trace the larger story of their friendship, finding striking overlaps between their distinctive worlds.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eRecording a vanished way of literary and intellectual life, \u003cem\u003eExpatriates of No Country\u003c\/em\u003e casts a new light on two extraordinary people through their unlikely connection.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47362565308652,"sku":"9780231214452","price":41.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/8201223482270.jpg?v=1772893503"},{"product_id":"no-and-bunraku-by-donald-keene-9780231074193","title":"Nō and Bunraku","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDonald Keene combines informative works on two forms of classical Japanese theatre into a single volume. The \u003cem\u003eNō\u003c\/em\u003e text looks at all aspects of this traditional theatre form, including its history, its stage and props, the use of music and dance in its performances, the plays as literature, and the aesthetics of \u003cem\u003eNō\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAlso discussed are Kyōgen, the comic farces that are typically interspersed with the solemn \u003cem\u003eNō\u003c\/em\u003e dramas.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47463935869164,"sku":"9780231074193","price":68.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780231074193-n-and-bunraku.jpg?v=1775036866"},{"product_id":"the-pleasures-of-japanese-literature-by-donald-keene-9780231067379","title":"The Pleasures of Japanese Literature","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePerhaps no one is more qualified to write about Japanese culture than Donald Keene, considered the leading interpreter of that nation's literature to the Western world. The author, editor, or translator of nearly three dozen books of criticism and works of literature, Keene now offers an enjoyable and beautifully written introduction to traditional Japanese culture for the general reader.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe book acquaints the reader with Japanese aesthetics, poetry, fiction, and theatre, and offers Keene's appreciations of these topics. Based on lectures given at the New York Public Library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the University of California, Los Angeles, the essays—though written by a renowned scholar—presuppose no knowledge of Japanese culture. Keene's deep learning, in fact, enables him to construct an overview as delightful to read as it is informative.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHis insights often illuminate aspects of traditional Japanese culture that endure today. One of these is the appreciation of \"perishability.\" This appreciation is seen in countless little bits of Japanese life: in temples made of wood instead of durable materials; in the preference for objects—such as pottery—that are worn, broken, or used rather than new; and in the national love of the delicate cherry blossom, which normally falls after a brief three days of flowering. Keene quotes the fourteenth-century Buddhist monk Kenko, who wrote that \"the most precious thing about life is its uncertainty.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout the volume, Keene demonstrates that the rich artistic and social traditions of Japan can indeed be understood by readers from our culture. \u003cem\u003eThe Pleasures of Japanese Literature\u003c\/em\u003e will enlighten anyone interested in Japanese literature and culture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Unknown","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47471820570860,"sku":"9780231067379","price":56.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/1488113e469819cdb31997563bb7a494.jpg?v=1775694499"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.co.nz\/collections\/donald-keene.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}