Help understanding / translating a Japanese sentence with nested clauses

Question

This sentence is not all that complicated, but I'm having a bit of trouble understanding exactly what it means and how the grammar is working. It's a quote from Japanese author Yoshikichi Furui (古井由吉):

私は内向の世代の一人といわれていますが、内向の世代というのは七〇年ごろ出てきた一群の作家たちで、当時、「難解」という非難を向けられた。

I would translate it something like this:

"It is said that I'm one of a generation of introverts, but within the group of novelists emerging around 1970 that made up this generation, I was at the same time faced with criticism for being 'obscure.'"

I'm not sure about:

1. How the 内向の世代というのは is working... Is it repeated in this way to set up a redefinition -- that in talking about a "generation of introverts," what is really meant is a specific group of writers emerging around 1970?

2. Is it clear at the end that 非難を向けられた refers to the speaker as an individual, as opposed to the group of novelists as a whole being faced with the criticism?

Any thoughts much appreciated : )

Answer 1

私は内向の世代の一人といわれていますが

This 'が' is working like 'and' rather than 'but.'
You can use 'が' or colloquial 'けど' in this way when you set up a theme or a topic.

内向の世代というのは七〇年ごろ出てきた一群の作家たちで

'で' is the conjunctive form of 助動詞 'だ', and 'だ' indicates assertion（断定）.

With the way it is used here (*), this conjunctive form is putting an end to a predicate, without putting an end to the sentence. The terminal form 'だ' would have ended it, requiring a full stop after it:

• ・・出てきた一群の作家たちだ、当時、「難解」という・・(You cannot do this.)
• ・・出てきた一群の作家たちだ。当時、「難解」という・・(You can, with some side effects.)

So in its conjunctive form, 'で' is also working like 'and', I think.

With the couple of segments I have quoted above, 内向の世代というのは is working like this:

• They say I belong to the generation of introverts. It is a group of novelists that emerged around 1970 and...

当時、「難解」という非難を向けられた

Because the subject has not changed, this is another predicate that describes '内向の世代'.

• ...it faced criticism for being 'obscure.'

Therefore 非難を向けられた also refers to 内向の世代, but not to the speaker as an individual.

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(*)For more information for the use of conjunctive forms, you could start from this answer.

Answer 2

You've made a fairly common mistake while parsing this sentence. You thought that が here essentially works like the English "but", however that is not the case. The part following it doesn't negate anything that was said before, it simply elaborates on what 内向の世代 is.

This が works similarly to the English "and for those who don't know (what 内向の世代 is)", while というのは is a typical structure for defining things. And it can't be a redefinition since 内向の世代 wasn't really defined in the first part of the sentence, it was simply mentioned.

I believe it is now clear that 非難を向けられた refers to the whole group of writers.