Are Japanese cartoons and dramas generally optimistic and positive, while Japanese literature is pessimistic?

I think, first of all, Japan's inherent literary thoughts have a far-reaching impact on modern and contemporary Japanese literary creation.

After a long period of development, the ballads in the middle and late period of Ye Wan Collection began to have literary consciousness, and gradually formed the concepts of truth, sorrow, sorrow for things, mystery, elegance, emptiness and leisure, which Japanese songs and other literary forms relied on, and their occurrence point was discovery and perception.

Discovery, feeling and ideal are the starting points of realism, romanticism and symbolism. And after the Meiji Restoration, under the influence of western literature, realism, romanticism and symbolism were born. Japanese modern and contemporary literature not only develops within its society, but also communicates with foreign literary thoughts. However, it is worth noting that what plays a decisive role is its inherent aesthetic value. From this point of view, I personally think that the "pessimism" that the subject feels at this time is probably a sense of detachment, full of nostalgia, sadness, sadness and other psychological emotions, which can turn suffering into elegance and vulgarity and wander between loneliness and absurdity. This is Japan's aesthetic pursuit since ancient times, or a pervasive national temperament. So melancholy, nostalgia, sympathy and lament give foreign readers a feeling of "pessimism".

Secondly, Japanese literature after World War II has undergone fundamental changes compared with pre-war literature.

After World War II, the Japanese ideological and literary circles, starting from criticizing the absolute emperor system, introduced various modern western ideas, formed a strong humanistic trend of thought, promoted the awakening of the modern self, emancipated the mind and changed ideas, thus violently impacting the traditional ideological system and value system.

The political, economic, social and cultural macro-background of Japan in this period is well known. The greatest change in postwar Japanese literature is the emergence of postwar school. We sent two batches after the war, 1946 and 1948. It is worth noting that the postwar school is not a concept of time, but the writers of the postwar school are different from those before the war in renewing literary concepts, caring about themes and pursuing new forms of expression. There is no literary entity and no unified literary program. Judging from the writers' works in this period, I personally think that the main connotations of pessimism are sociality and self-awareness (because of the language barrier, I have to read Ye's History of Japanese Literary Thought, but as long as it is related to World War II, it will be very popular and professional, and interested readers can turn it over and choose for themselves). This "pessimism" shook the shadow of the times, and anti-war literary thoughts, existentialist literary thoughts, democratic literary thoughts and rogue literary thoughts all came into being during this period. (generally, it is also the path of "reflection-rebellion-rebellion". Is it familiar? )

Let's find a chestnut. Among them, the earliest, most representative and most widely known rogue faction is a flash in the pan (Osamu Dazai is finally going to be bold! That's right! He put forward the word "hooliganism"! It's him! It's him! It's him! )。 The main writers are: Osamu Dazai (Disqualification on Earth, which was criticized in Zhihu, is a typical masterpiece of this period, which fully embodies the characteristics of rogue literature), Ishikawa Chun (who wrote a eulogy for Osamu Dazai), sakaguchi ango, Oda Sakunosuke and so on. There are also a group of Japanese literary historians. Their key words are defined as "rebellion": rebelling against reality, opposing and criticizing the absolute imperial system, rebelling against the old "ego" ... opposing opposing opposing opposing opposing, denying denying denying denying, deconstructing and being unable to rebuild, pursuing "freedom of thought" and "liberation of human nature", which makes people feel that there are some hypocritical feelings in despair. This morbid rebellion is a tragedy in itself, and the writer's personal fate can't be redeemed, let alone social reality? (In The Life of Disliked Pine Nuts, the guest role of Li Shuhang and Gong Teng is to pay tribute to Osamu Dazai. You can feel it. ) From nothingness, decadence, degeneration to self-destruction is an inevitable outcome.

Third, contemporary Japanese literature pays special attention to "sociality".

Modern Japanese literature shows too much criticism, and the main feature of contemporary literature lies in the deepening of criticism. Therefore, pessimism at this time is more of a kind of criticism. However, it is worth noting that this kind of "criticism" tends to criticize the shortcomings of the times, starting from the problems existing in daily life and deepening, and the life in the words is relatively strong.

From the perspective of realistic literature, it is mainly reflected in the integration with modernism, and more in the pattern and techniques. Representative writers Noda Yoshihiko and Jing Shangjing; From the point of view of modernist literature, it is more inclined to pursue inner anxiety and unrealistic things in daily life (Japanese modernists can subdivide many factions without going into details). In a sense, this is similar to the hooligans, who all pursue so-called "spiritual freedom", "personality liberation" and even "sexual liberation"

The sociality of this period is different from the sociality mentioned in the second point above. My personal understanding is that it not only contains the piece that keeps pace with the times, but also has the characteristics of alienation and indifference to society, which is another important manifestation of "sociality". This part is the real power and new literary trend of thought that has brought impact to Japanese society and Japanese literary world (I don't believe you can observe the winning works of Akutagawa Prize in this period). This alienation is like a kind of desperate resistance, dissatisfaction, disbelief and indifference, which is the reason for "criticism" and "pessimism".

To sum up, Japanese traditional literature downplays politics and sociality, which is generally natural; However, due to the times and historical conditions, Japanese modern literature had to passively join the WTO. Resistance is greater than criticism because I was not used to criticizing society in literature from the beginning. The fundamental reason is "the deviation between sociology and aesthetics" (Dr. Nana Ogawa).