Kenzaburō Ōe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Kenzaburō Ōe
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![]() Ōe in 2012
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Native name |
大江 健三郎
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Born | 31 January 1935 Ōse, Ehime, Japan |
Occupation | Novelist, short-story writer, essayist |
Period | 1950–present |
Notable works | A Personal Matter, The Silent Cry |
Notable awards | Nobel Prize in Literature 1994 |
Kenzaburō Ōe born 31 January 1935 is a Japanese writer and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His novels, short stories and essays, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues, including nuclear weapons, nuclear power, social non-conformism, and existentialism.
Ōe was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1994 for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".
Early Life
Ōe was born in a village now in Uchiko, Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku. He was the third son of seven children. Ōe's grandmother taught him. His grandmother died in 1944, and later that year, Ōe's father died in the Pacific War. Ōe's mother became his primary educator, buying him books such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, whose impact Ōe says he will carry to the grave.