The focus of the present dissertation project will be on the literary description of the role played by mass media as television and internet and others as well as by their related technologies in the living out of affective impulses and bodily needs. The influence of (new) media on human self-perception and processes of interaction are analyzed as one of the central topics of ABE’s works. Psychologist and literary critic SAITÔ Tamaki even poses the question whether ABE’s work should not be read as a "foundation of a media theory".

The thesis attempts to reconstruct to what extent the above mentioned observations are applicable and can serve as basis for further reflections. At the same time ABE Kazushige is introduced for the first time as a central literary author of contemporary Japan in a comprehensive manner.