A Study of Mystery of Woman as Viewed by Middle Class Readers Meiji and Taisyo

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26370253
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese literature
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: Ishikhara Chiaki 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (00159758)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 夏目漱石 / 女の謎 / 進化論 / 主人公

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The protagonist in Modern Japanese Literature can be divided into two categories; the story-type protagonist who transitions from one state to another, and the novel-type protagonist who ruminates on certain matters. In Meiji Japan, male ntellectuals had only recently come to discover women as a biologically similar but separate variety of human being. They regarded females as a sort of mystical entity due to the fact that, according to the manners and education of the time, women neither spoke, acted, nor expressed any emotion beyond what was required of them.
Lacking an actual sense of their own existence, Soseki’s protagonists seek the sole affirmation of their being from the woman who loves them. However, as women are to them essentially a mystery, they suffer only anguish in their quest for love. This is the typical hero of Soseki’s fiction and it is for this reason that his protagonists emerge as the original model for the modern intellectual.

Free Research Field

日本近代文学