as social and literary criticism. A recipient of virtually all the major
literary prizes in Japan, he has gone on to achieve literary acclaim in
Europe. In 1989 the Belgian-based Europelia Arts Festival, which chose
Japan as its theme that year, awarded Oe the prestigous Europelia liter-
ary award. He was also nominated for the 1986 Neustadt International
Prize for Literature.

A Personal Matter, Ōe's first novel-length work to be translated into
English ( 1968), winning rave reviews from British and American review-
ers, has since been translated into Dutch, French, German, Norwegian,
Spanish, and Swedish. Of Ōe's other major novels, Manen-gannen no
Fottoboru (The Football Game of the First Year of Manen), has been trans-
lated into into French, German, Polish and Russian, and English (the
1974 English version is entitled The Silent Cry); M/T to Mori to Hushigi no
Monogatari (The Tale of Marvel, M/T and the Forest) into French; Pinchi
Runna Chosho (The Pinch Runner Memorandum), into Russian. A large
number of his short stories are also available in many foreign lan-
guages. Ōe's works have been the subject of critical studies by several
Japanologists in the United States.

In spite of his non-stop writing schedule, Ōe has often found time to
travel and lecture in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. He
has been a writer-in-residence at the Colegio de Mexico and the University
of California at Berkeley. Ōe resides in Tokyo with his wife, their other
children, and Hikari, a promising composer of contemporary music.

Michiko Niikuni Wilson

Charlottesville, Virginia

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