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The Empire of Paranoids: Lectures on the Intellectual History of American Literature

Publish: March 20, 2019

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  • Takayuki Tatsumi

    Faculty of Letters Professor

    Takayuki Tatsumi

    Faculty of Letters Professor

One of the reasons I decided to pursue American literary studies was Ken Kesey's 1960s counterculture novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1962). The tragicomedy woven from the friendship between McMurphy¡ªa rowdy but righteous man confined to a mental hospital¡ªand Chief Bromden¡ªa silent but insightful Native American¡ªwas translated into Japanese in 1974. In 1978, it was staged by the Shiki Theatre Company under Keita Asari, gaining acclaim with a cast featuring Takeshi Kaga and Sakae Takita. Beyond the friendship between different ethnicities, the novel suggests that America itself during the Vietnam War era might be an infinitely managed mental hospital. The awareness that one must thoroughly resist oppression lacking a just cause left a powerful impression on me when I was around 20 years old. This year marks the 100th anniversary of J.D. Salinger's birth, and a similar structure underlies his The Catcher in the Rye (1951). The possibility that an outsider deviating from social common sense can demonstrate civic resistance is precisely the charm of American literature.

Richard Hofstadter, a Columbia University professor who led the history of political thought in North America from the 1950s to the 1960s, called this mentality "anti-intellectualism" and explored the "paranoid style" as an inseparable tendency. Both terms sound negative in Japan, but is that truly the case?

Anti-intellectualism is likely widely known today, as it is applied to criticisms of the government in the United States and Japan. However, what Hofstadter proved was that anti-intellectualism is not merely a preference for the economy or respect for the military; above all, it has formed an intellectual history that constitutes the mainstream of American literature as anti-authoritarianism. He also showed that, as the flip side of this, conspiracy delusions at the national and international levels¡ªthe paranoid style¡ªhave at times expanded to include witch hunts, Red Scares, and even tales of alien abduction by UFOs. This book aims to illustrate, through specific literary works and films, that a uniquely American narratological creativity is hidden there, bringing to light an intellectual history that has previously remained in the shadows.

Takayuki Tatsumi

Taishukan Shoten

258 pages, 2,200 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are those at the time of publication.

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