The mask of a confession: keys to reading and translating Yukio Mishima’s 'Confessions of a Mask'
This article provides an overview of the main issues and thematic axes in Yukio Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask (1949) with the aim of acquainting 21st-century Western readers with the novel. Basically, we have identified uncertainties about sexuality, the duality of the self, and the nature of confession as the pillars of the novel. Based on these characteristics, we focused primarily on the sources and influences that Mishima could have used to flesh out the protagonist. We also analyzed various aspects that we took into account when translating the novel into Basque.
