Literature on Guilt: In Search of the Autobiographical Basis of Mark Twain's Fiction

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K02490
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Osaka University
• Principal Investigator: Satouchi Katsumi 大阪大学, 大学院人文学研究科(言語文化学専攻), 教授 (10215874)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: Mark Twain / 自伝 / 罪悪感 / 人種 / 良心 / 分身

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Focusing on the unfinished novel, Which Was It?, this study examined aspects of the interplay between biographical fact and fiction in Mark Twain's works and presented various essays in print and orally. These papers clarified to a significant extent how the motifs of alter ego, guilt, and race, which are the author's primary concerns, became intertwined and consistent features of Twain's work and developed from his early works, including his correspondence from Hawaii and the novel The Gilded Age, through works of his middle period such as "The Simon Wheeler Sequence," and into his late, unpublished works. In addition, Twain's autobiography, an essential reference for understanding the personal background of his works, was translated into Japanese from a version serialized in magazines since 1906 and was published as a book.

Free Research Field

アメリカ文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

米国を代表する文学者トウェインについては、既におびただしい量の先行研究があるが、晩年の小説『それはどっちだったか』は重要でありながらほとんど黙殺されてきた。本研究はその空所を補う意義を有している。とりわけ、トウェインの初期・中期の作品群の延長線上に『それはどっちだったか』を定位することにより、それが作家活動の長いキャリアにおいてかなめの位置にある作品であることを明らかにし、トウェイン研究に大きく貢献した。また、『〈連載版〉マーク・トウェイン自伝』を訳出し、最新の学術的な知見に裏打ちされた解説や注釈と併せて出版することで、トウェインという文学者の新たな魅力を一般の読者に伝えることができた。