Open AccessO MITO KAPPA COMO RELATO ETNOGRÁFICO
Author(s) -
Mônica Setuyo Okamoto,
Alisson Krasota
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
revista épicas
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2527-080X
DOI - 10.47044/2527-080x.2021v10.8296
Subject(s) - mythology , the imaginary , perspective (graphical) , ethnography , kappa , history , sociology , art , psychoanalysis , literature , ethnology , anthropology , psychology , philosophy , visual arts , linguistics
The short story “Kappa” (1927), by the Japanese writer Ryûnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927), revolves around the story of a man known only as patient number 23, an inmate at the S. insane asylum, who tells that he lived a season in the land of the kappas (half humanoid and half amphibians, from Japanese mythology) and describes their way of life in comparison with that of Japanese society. The anthropological movement of making the strange world of the kappas familiar and, in turn, making the human world exotic, runs through the entire tale. The aim of this work, therefore, is to explore the idea of the kappa myth as an ethnographic report, analyzing, from an anthropological perspective, the imaginary journey (or not?) of the protagonist, psychiatric patient number 23, into the world of these mythological beings.