Grade A, B, C, D - Grade A, B, C, D

Japanese: 甲乙丙丁 - こうおつへいてい

A full-length novel written by Nakano Shigeharu in his later years. It was serialized in Gunzo magazine from 1965 to 1969. The present is set in the few months after Nakano Shigeharu was expelled from the Japanese Communist Party in 1964, and the work encompasses the thirty-plus years since 1930 in the form of recollections of the two protagonists, Tsuda (an employee of Nippon Shiryosha and a Communist Party member) and Tamura (an author and Communist Party Central Committee member), who are also the author's alter egos and friends, as they wake up, fall asleep, or walk through the city. In this way, the author looks at the current conflicts within the Communist Party over such issues as the April 17 strike, the ratification of the Partial Nuclear Arms Ban Treaty, and the 11th New Japan Literary Association Conference, as well as his own expulsion from the party, and traces back to the 1950 split and the 6th Party Congress, which serve as the basis for the present, and further to the proletarian literature movement, to expose the illness of the Japanese revolutionary movement.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

中野重治晩年の長編小説。1965‐69年，《群像》に連載。64年に中野重治が日本共産党から除名されてからの数ヵ月を現在時とし，同じく作者の分身であり互いに友人どうしである2人の主人公津田(日本資料社社員，共産党員)と田村(作家，共産党中央委員)との目覚め際の，あるいは寝入り端の，あるいは街を歩いている間の群がりきたる回想という形で1930年以来の三十数年を作品の中に含む。このような形で作家は四･一七ストライキ，部分核停条約批准，新日本文学会第11回大会など現在の問題についての共産党内の対立と彼自身の党からの除名という事態を見据え，現在の根拠としての50年分裂と六全協，さらにプロレタリア文学運動にさかのぼって日本革命運動の病患を剔抉（てつけつ）した。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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