Obasan is a novel by the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. First published by Lester and Orpen Dennys in 1981, it chronicles Canada's internment and persecution of its citizens of Japanese descent during World War II from the perspective of a young child. This book is often required reading for university English courses on Canadian Literature as well as in Ethnic Studies and Asian American Literature courses in the United States. In 2005, it ...
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Obasan is a novel by the Japanese-Canadian author Joy Kogawa. First published by Lester and Orpen Dennys in 1981, it chronicles Canada's internment and persecution of its citizens of Japanese descent during World War II from the perspective of a young child. This book is often required reading for university English courses on Canadian Literature as well as in Ethnic Studies and Asian American Literature courses in the United States. In 2005, it was the One Book, One Vancouver selection.
Kogawa uses strong imagery of silence, stones and streams throughout the novel. Themes depicted in the novel include: memory and forgetting, prejudice and tolerance, identity, and justice versus injustice. Kogawa also has many other poetry which contemplate the theme of Obasan.
Set in 1972, Obasan centres on the memories and experiences of Naomi Nakane, a 36 year old schoolteacher living in the rural Canadian town of Cecil, Alberta, when the novel begins. The death of Naomi's uncle, with whom she had...
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