Abstract

Indo-Japanese relations have successfully completed 70 years. In this scenario,asking how literature has captured this relationship is significant. Some prominent works of modern Japanese fiction have explored the significance of India as a spiritual land, with answers to questions that the Japanese people seek in novels such as Fukai Kawa. When one talks about one-on-one interactions between people of the two nations, there are only very few works in Indian English fiction which explore this space. The Japanese Wife is a short story by Kunal Basu which is unique in exploring the bond that forms over letters between the Indian man Snehamoy and the Japanese lady Miyage. The story explores the improbable bond that the two form over letters, even without meeting each other in person, through the length of the story. How this is made possible and what this example of intercultural communication signifies are some of the questions that the paper attempts to explore answers to as it examines the unique intercultural communication that ensues between the two in the form of letters and gifts exchanged.

Keywords: The Japanese Wife, Intercultural communication, letters, epistolary fiction, Kunal Basu

Notes on Contributor
Centre for Japanese Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, mvlakshmi@gmail.com