ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the experience modern women, Murata Kiyoko, with penetrating sincerity and honesty, but her philosophic profundity in understanding modern life, her intellectual capacity to view her experiences in a historical and social context, and her mastery of the art of fiction render the traditional category of 'female-school literature' totally inadequate to characterize their works. Murata Kiyoko, born in the final year of the war, holds a unique position among those who began their careers in the eighties. She rejects what she calls the physiological/psychological approach used by earlier authors of 'I' novels. Instead she is interested in individual origins, which has inspired her to write about old women and the symbols she associates with them, water and earth. Images are important in her writing and often take precedence over plots. An author of humor and economy, Murata has a certain reluctance about overly humanizing or individualizing her characters.
