Identity Transformation in the Literature of the Japanese Diaspora in Brazil (1908–1941)

The article is devoted to revealing the mechanisms of depicting the process of identity transformation in the literary work of the Japanese diaspora in Brazil. The aim is achieved by studying small prose in the genre of naturalism using the material of the Collection of Colonia Stories. The time frame is limited by the arrival of immigrants in 1908 and the prohibition of foreign language printing in 1941.

The article describes the formation of the collective identity of the Japanese in Brazil from a historical perspective. The key features of the Japanese emigration, further reflected in the literary work of the diaspora in Brazil, are revealed: regional localization, migrants’ belonging to the peasantry, the formation of a special koroniago dialect. Special attention is paid to the reasons for the split within the diaspora, which became the main motif in the problems of literary works. Intragroup disunity has its roots in the social structure of the Japanese community and was stimulated by the urbanization of the 1930s.

The article analyzes the process of formation of a distinctive center of literary creativity in the Japanese emigration in Brazil. The mechanisms of alienation of literary works based on the opposition between “pure” and “mass” literature are revealed.

The transformation of Japanese identity in Brazil is evidenced by analyzing the problematics of the works. The painful process of integration into the host community gives center stage to the racial-ethnic issues of imin bungaku. The works depict the interaction between Japanese and Brazilians through inter-ethnic conflicts. The works studied reflect discursive patterns of describing the racial Other in the space of literature. The works are particularly sensitive to the betrayal of intra-community bonds and the acquisition of the traits of the host community. The process of identity transformation is examined in literature through the prism of social status, ethnicity, and gender discrimination. The analysis of the works shows the evolution of the representation of the Other from demonization and rejection to acceptance of the transformed identity. The change of perspective on the formation of a bicultural “Japanese-Brazilian” identity on the eve of World War II was interrupted by the outburst of Japanese nationalism during the war years. However, the acceptance of one’s own otherness and the literary representation of this process would become the foundation for the successful integration of the Japanese into Brazilian society in the postwar decades.

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