The Age of Sadness

★ By subjecting a class of Taiwanese fictions to study in the critical framework of naturalism the author redefines an unsettling relationship between them and their Chinese as well as Japanese counterparts, further identifying some aspects of the cultural entity as belonging properly to Taiwanese literature. -------------------------- C. H. Wang, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, University of Washington, Seattle. ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... . . .... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ...... ★ In this trenchant and lively study Nai-Huei Shen provides a new perspective for viewing Taiwanese literature under Japanese colonization, since naturalism as a prominent literary mode has been neglected in most research in this field for many decades. Taiwanese naturalism was enormously influenced by French naturalism. But its specific cultural topography and particular colonial history make it unique from many naturalist versions. The book has helped to shape the fundamental conceptions of modern Taiwanese literary arts.