Narrative Techniques in Aldous Huxley's Fiction and Speculative Essays

2021 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K12317
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02030:English literature and literature in the English language-related
• Research Institution: Tokyo Medical and Dental University
• Principal Investigator: Inokuma Keiko 東京医科歯科大学, 教養部, 准教授 (00508369)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2022-03-31
• Keywords: 語り / 叙事詩 / ジャンル / 小説 / 生誕 / 誕生

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The original plan of this project was to conduct research on Huxley's texts along with some field research in the United Kingdom. However, the coronavirus outbreak made it impossible to pursue the planned research. The renewed plan focused on the theme of "birth of life," which was problematized in Huxley's masterpiece _Brave New World_, and reconsidered the significance and difficulties of depicting "birth" in a novel. In the early stages of this research, I approached the theme from the genre theory, analyzing and discussing the genre of novel in comparison and contrast with other genres such as film, epic, and poetry. Based on the results, the research finally shed light on the fact that Huxley’s works are not merely satiric essays, but that they explore the boundaries of the "individual" and the limits of the genre of "novel" itself.

Free Research Field

イギリス19世紀、20世紀小説研究

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、ハクスリーらの小説作品を他ジャンル／多ジャンルの作品群との比較対照のうちに捉え直すことを通して、多くの批評家が当然のものとして内面化してきた価値観―― 小説とは何よりも「社会のなかでの個人のありようを描写する書き物」である――そのものを問題化して分析した。結果として、「小説とは社会のなかでの個人のありようを描写するもの」という、一見して明白かつ簡便な定義は、実のところ「社会」「個人」の始まりや誕生という概念設定を曖昧にしたままの、きわめて不確かで危うい定義である点を、ハクスリー作品の分析を通じて明らかにすることができた。