Abe Kōbō’s The Crime of S. Karma. Metamorphosis as the synthesis of artistic and political avant-garde

Abstract

Abe Kōbō was one the most renowned writers of Japanese postwar literature and, like many of his contemporaries, was interested in avant-garde arts and communism. Abe used to frequent and also led groups of artists where they talked about avant-garde ideals and, as a member of the Communist Party, he organized cultural activities in working areas. It was also in those years when his career as a writer began after winning the prestigious Akutagawa prize. Metamorphosis was a recurring topic in his short stories of that time and that is the reason why he was called the Japanese Kafka, although he recognized different influences. In this article we analyze one of his metamorphosis short stories to think about the meaning of this topic, that we consider to be the synthesis of both avant-gardes, the artistic and the political, that Abe understood as a whole.