ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the experience of modern women, Uno Chiyo, 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 her works. Uno Chiyo's life was also untraditional in her personal relations, which form materials on which she draws heavily in her works. Yet her treatment of them brings her works close to the phenomenological study of state of mind rather than the involved scrutiny of the self. Uno's study of human psychology is supported by her stylistic consciousness, especially in non-autobiographical pieces. Uno even invented a special language that would best suit the character by mixing her native dialect with Kansai flavor, most effectively in 'Ohan' (1947-50) as well as in some more recent stories.
