Minuscules

Japan and oriental art were great influences on some of Claudel's texts. A brief review of the origins of the Japanese short story and of the first encounters between Claudel and Japanese art precedes, in this essay, an analysis of Claudel's writing in this regard. Then, based on the poet's texts about Japan and/or reflecting his experience of Japan, we attempt to isolate major features of oriental writing: attention paid to emptiness and silence, different view on mimesis, purity and simplicity of style, settling of the subject, and eternity given by the creative act to fleeting moments. In conclusion, it seems that Japanese literature presents an atmosphere of self-restraint that sometimes appears as insensibility.The second part of this master's thesis is a collection of short stories which show, at various extents, the same characteristics of oriental writing as observed within Claudel's literary works