A Structuralist Study of the "Modenity" of Natyume Soseki;s Literatyure as Viewed by Moddle Class Readers in the Miji and Taisyo

2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 23520252
• 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: ISHIHARA CHIAKI 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (00159758)
• Project Period (FY): 2011 – 2013
• Keywords: 夏目漱石 / 新しさ / 読者 / 女学生小説 / 家庭小説

Research Abstract

In this study I have demonstraed the difference between Soseki;s iterature and the domestic noveis and novels featuring schoogiris that readers were familiar with at the end of the nineteenth century,and which share some traits with his fiction. First, the lives of the famale protagonsts in Soseki;s literature are portrayed after they have graduated from singl-sex schools, in which they secure an independent identity for themselves in ther relaitionships with men by presenting themselves as "enigmas" in their romantic engagements and maririages. Second, Soseki was conscious of the Meiji Civel Code when he wrote about families, and he presented in these novels-wihich shoud proprely be regarded as domestic novels the modern Japanese family undre the paternalistic.