hom 9/20/96
A Short Biographical Sketch: Hi! My name is Harumi Moruzzi. I was born in Japan and lived there until I came to a graduate school in the U.S.. I received a B.A. in English Literature from Nanzan University in Japan. My thesis was on J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. I studied literature and philosophy at Indiana University in Bloomington. While studying for the preliminary examination I taught Japanese. I received a Ph.D. in English Literature with a minor in Philosophy from Indiana University. My doctoral dissertation was on John Barth: Reality and Humor in John Barth. Although UMI Research Press as well as a few university presses wanted me to convert my Ph.D. dissertation into a book, I have not had enough time to do so. I have been married for 15 years and have two young children.
Aspiration -- Then and Now: Since my childhood I wanted to be a novelist; in particular, I wanted to be a published author by 17 -- the literary career of Francoise Sagan was my ideal. I read literature from all over the world, voraciously, and was mostly interested in inventing a new way of telling stories. After all I did not have much life experience. The only thing I could do was to retell old stories in different ways. I started to write many stories; but, none was completed. It was not easy to write about romantic emotions without really experiencing them. I was very disappointed when I realized that I had not completed one story by age 17. But, someday I hope I will be able to write a novel.
Work at the Evergreen: I joined the faculty of the Evergreen State College six years ago. Since then I have taught Japanese language, literature, history and culture as well as film studies, classical and modern literature and philosophy, and multi-cultural studies. I am also interested in aesthetics, ontology, epistemology, ecology, gender and race issues.
Philosophy of Life: I am essentially an existentialist: I believe that existence precedes essence -- for example, identity is not something that is given but something that one creates; I believe that ultimately life is meaningless and absurd, but, I also believe that human dignity comes from living life to its fullest while accepting its final absurdity and insignificance. This is the reason why I value art and humor. Art and humor create an intellectual and psychological environment in which humans can live. Without art or humor life must be quite difficult to endure.
Now, let me cite here my favorite passages from Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, Freud's "Humour" and my favorite Barthian aphorism.
Nietzsche: "In the consciousness of the truth once perceived, man now sees everywhere only the terror or the absurdity of existence .... But at this juncture, when the will is most imperiled, art approaches, as a redeeming and healing enchantress; she alone may transform these horrible reflections on the terror and absurdity of existence into representations with which man may live. These are the representation of the sublime as the artistic conquest of the awful, and the comic as the artistic release from the nausea of the absurd."
Freud: "Like wit and the comic, humour has in it a liberating element. .... Obviously, what is fine about it is the triumph of narcissism, the ego's victorious assertion of its own invulnerability. It refuses to be hurt by the arrows of reality or to be compelled to suffer. It insists that it is impervious to wounds dealt by the outside world, in fact, that these are merely occasions for affording it pleasure."
John Barth: "Reality is a nice place to visit but you wouldn't want to live there."
Hobbies: Reading; watching films and theatrical plays; listening to classical and contemporary music; bicycling; playing tennis; playing chess; canoeing; painting; drawing.
Some of my paintings:
