He gained a strong place in Japanese literature by bringing Japan's strongest social and political critical approach to the world of the novel. In addition to this feature, his novels with high intellectual quality brought him the Nobel Prize in 1994.
Kenzaburo Oe was born on January 31, 1935, in Japan. He studied French Literature at the University of Tokyo, Japan's most prestigious university.
Kenzaburo Oe was brought up in a provincial family of warrior-class roots. He believed that the Emperor was a living God until he heard from the Emperor himself that World War II was over and realized that he was a human being like himself.
Kenzaburō Ōe (31 January 1935 – 3 March 2023) was 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 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today".
The death of his father, the defeat of Japan in the war, and the birth of his son Hikari with a disability due to a cerebral hernia were events that played an important role in his personal and literary life.
Details of his life story
Oe is of warrior-class descent and was brought up in a traditional provincial family. Like most Japanese children of his age, Oe believed the Emperor was a living God until Emperor Hirohito himself heard on the radio that Japan had lost and surrendered to the allied forces, and that World War II was over. However, learning that the Emperor was a human being like him, Oe experienced a sense of loss and destruction that changed his perception of the world forever. The early death of his father, II. The defeat of Japan in World War II and finally the birth of his son Hikari with a disability due to a cerebral hernia were the most influential events in Oe's personal and literary life. In his works, Sartre combined such diverse writers as Mailer, Faulkner, Melville, William Blake, William Butler Yeats, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Miguel de Cervantes, Dante, and Chi-ha.
WHY DID KENZABURO OE DIED?
It was stated that the cause of death of the Nobel Prize-winning author was due to old age.
THE PRIVATE LIFE OF KENZABURO OE
He married Yukari Oe. The couple had a child from this marriage.
HOW DID HE DEFINE HIMSELF?
“I don't have a belief right now and I don't think there will be in the future. But I am not an atheist either. I am a secular person. You could call it morality. Throughout my life, I have always acquired knowledge, but through rationality, thought, and experience. I am a logical person and only act on my own experience.”