Japanese Gothic Literature

    After spending a great deal of time of European Gothic literature I have had the opportunity to experience some of the Japanese Gothic literature. What I have found is that the both have similar themes, but are expressed differently. Oppression in the European Gothic is generally a man oppressing a woman or women, as in The Castle of Otranto, Manfred was the oppressor of his wife, daughter and dead son's fiance. However, In the Japanese Gothic the oppressor is often a woman, as in The Tatooer, the young geisha becomes the tormentor of men, beginning with the tatooer as her first victim, even though he is who has helped her unveil her true self.

     Another theme is the supernatural, this is presented in most Western Gothic, the living portrait in The Castle of Otranto and the zombie sister in "The Fall of the House of Usher." These supernatural events were signs or punishment for the acts of the living. Well in the Japanese Gothic you have these types of events but it is usually due to something that the dead has done, a pledge unfulfilled as in "The Chrysanthemum Vow,"  Saomon returns as a ghost to fulfill his pledge to Samon.

     Now that I have seen Gothic through the lens of a different culture I can see that the themes are similar but the interpretation is different. The Western and the Japanese Gothic literature both have the emotional intensity, but while I was reading The Surgery Room it touched me very deeply I could really feel the couples sorrow. So I guess in some ways I feel as though the Japanese are a little more intense, which I think is due to our culture differences.