The semi-space of life and the illusion of depth - Matsuura Hisaki's Peninsula

Matsuura Hisaki's novel Hantō [Peninsula] contains a highly saturated critical and poetic space, allowing us to probe the boundaries of Japan's periphery and the limits of the experience of interiority. An analysis of the structure and the narrative devices of the novel leads to the creation of a spatial model conceptualizing the idea of 'peninsula' as an existential and literary trope. The 'peninsula' is also a reversible notion combining the narrative of a private experience of seclusion with critical commitment for reconsidering modern Japan's cartography. © 2009 Japanese Studies Association of Australia.