Mystery And Style In Yoshimotobanana's Novels

Yoshimotobanana is one of the leading writers in contemporary Japanese literature. She is well-known for her novels and well-received by readers around the world. She is the Queen of Literature in Japan, and in the West she is honored as the Contemporary Murasakisikibu. During about twenty to thirty years'of depression of pure literature, she miraculously created a Banana Phenomenon which earned her an unignorable place in contemporary Japanese literature.The unique style of Yoshimotobanana's novels has been widely recognized. Critics general say that in Yoshimotobanana, you can not only find the common taste and style of the post-modern writers, but also her unique poetic beauty and feminine sentiments. Previous studies in and out of Japan treated the artistic features of her novels from various perspectives, which enriched the understanding of her works and left spaces for sustainable discussion. However, among those studies, attention and commitment seem to be inadequate as to how the writer connects the reality that concerns the human being itself and the sheer presence wanting exploration in the recognition of the universe with the unrealistic qualities of the post-modern novels. In this sense, the interpretation of mysteries in Yoshimoto's novels will prove to be an important field of further research.Yoshimotobanana is adept at using imageries like water, the moon and others to create the mysterious atmosphere in her novels. Water highlights the theme of her novels, while the moon, with its magic power, imbues her novels with boundless imagination. The symbols enable the readers to feel the presence of mysteries. The exhibition of dreams and exploration of mysteries are themes often touched upon by her. The intangibility of dreams and exploration of mysteries both make her novels more complicated.The present paper treats Yoshimotobanana's three representative novels characterized by mysteries. Moonlight Shadow is in a strict sense her very first work, which contains all the features found in her later works. The elements of mystery in this novel are based on ancient legends and are given a modern interpretation. Prediction of Woe, a suspension style, was a novel which was given the highest appraisal by her father and is considered by herself to be the most distinctive in all her novels. Amurita is a comprehensive expression of her early works, which concentratively exhibits hues of mystery. The present paper aims at discussing the artistic ways in which she creates mysterious atmosphere and the different patterns of"mystery"represented by the three novels and analyzing the cause, characteristics and significance of her novels.