Osamu Dazai as Portrayed in the West
Category: Research Poster
Author(s): Giovanna Perrault
Presenter(s): Giovanna Perrault
I would like to give an overview of how the Japanese author, Osamu Dazai, is portrayed in the West compared to how he is learned in Japan. Over time, Dazai's image in the West has deteriorated from one of an author of major fame from Japan that led social change and gave explicit insight into the lives of the common Japanese civilians living in Wartime Japan, to now being a fun cartoon character in anime or videogames. I would like for my audience to leave my presentation thinking about what the appropriate ways to represent historical figures are and if or if not putting them into popular entertainment is harmful, since they can lose their professional guise, or helpful, since modern entertainment can lead to fans doing independent research and learning who such historical figures really were. To back my claims, I will be using research that I have compiled over the past year and a half from my time living in Japan to transferring to CSU.