SOURCE: Cargas, Harry James. “Fiction of Shame.” Christian Century 112, no. 12 (12 April 1995): 382-83.

In the following essay, Cargas argues that guilt functions as a major component of the Japanese psyche and Ōe's fiction, particularly in A Personal Matter.

The controversy over awarding a share of the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize to Yassir Arafat was hardly surprising. What was surprising to some was the lack of controversy over the Nobel Prize for Literature. The selection of Kenzaburo Oe for the award suggests that the Swedish immortals decided that this was Japan's year and that somebody from that nation would be recognized. Or, as often happens, the Nobel Prize would salute not only the celebrated writer but also the national literature represented by that author.

Oe is not a insignificant in world literature, and he is a fine writer. Yet he is so little known that on the morning of the Nobel...