2010 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A Literary Study of the Formation of Gender in the Infancy of Popular Discourse in the Meiji and Taisho Periods

Research Project

Project/Area Number	20520183
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Section	一般
Research Field	Japanese literature
Research Institution	Waseda University
Principal Investigator	ISHIHARA Chiaki Waseda University, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (00159758)
Project Period (FY)	2008 – 2010
Keywords	近・現代文学 / 大衆 / ジェンダー / 家庭 / 進化論 / 女性不信 / 社会構造 / 夏目漱石
Research Abstract	The enlightenment-based discourses that were directed towards the masses in the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) periods are still continuing today. In this research, I have focused mainly on the discourses concerning the characteristic differences between the sexes in the patriarchal capitalist society, and demonstrated that they functioned on three levels. The first level concerned the biological differences between men and women and, heavily influenced by the Theory of Evolution, argued for the superiority of men over women. The second level was based upon the first level, and aimed to fixed gender roles in society. The third level was concerned with trying to understand how women think, framed by what may be regarded as a "mistrust of females" paradigm. The third level obviously tended to be mostly adopted as a theme of literature. Thus it can be seen that literature is intimately linked with the structure of society as a whole.