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Revision with unchanged content. Tanaka Yasuo s Nantonaku, kurisutaru (Somehow, Crystal, 1980) and Yoshimoto Banana s Kitchin (Kitchen, 1987) have been denigrated as em ble matic of a so-called bastardized line of Japanese literature, characterized by an un abashed celebration of a late-capitalist consumerist ethos. Close rea dings of these works are undertaken in order to demonstrate that, while these works are reflective of late-capitalist postmodern Japan (the de ve lop ment of which is delineated prior to the readings), they nonetheless posit uniquely post modern strategies for critically engaging issues of identity for ma tion and main tenance, and the creation of meaning as they appear in the con temporary Japanese socio-cultural nexus. I argue that if such strategies are not immedi ately apparent, it is because they hold to what critic Fredric Jameson, in his dis cussion of the requisites for a new political art, calls the truth of postmo dernism. This work will interest those concerned with postwar and contemporary Japa nese culture, society and literature, as well as those engaged in the study of global culture.

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Subsequent to the completion of this work (a master s thesis in Asian Studies), the autor earned a Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Oregon. He is currently a professor of practice in Asian Studies at Tulane University, in New Orleans.

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