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Enter the Japanese Imperial Marine: Postwar Comedy and Errol Brathwaite’s An Affair of Men

  • Daniel McKay EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 8, 2014
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Abstract

Studies of Anglophone comedic fiction writing on the Second World War invariably concentrate on literary depictions of the war in Europe. In this article, I recover a neglected New Zealand novel that instead takes the war in the Pacific as its setting. Though it was not marketed as a comedic work, Errol Brathwaite’s An Affair of Men (1961) intentionally crosses boundaries of style and genre in ways that render its principal character, a Japanese Captain in the Imperial Marines, increasingly buffoonish. I argue that Brathwaite’s language, scenarios, and depictions were intended to confirm a perspective on enemy psychology that remained common throughout the Anglophone world well after the cessation of hostilities.

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Published Online: 2014-11-8
Published in Print: 2014-11-1

© 2014 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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