Writers and Society in Modern Japan PDF
Preview Writers and Society in Modern Japan
WRITERS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN St Anlo11:J' sf Macmillan Series General editor: Archie Brown, Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford Archie Brown and Michael Kaser (editors) SOVIET POLICY FOR THE 198os S. B. Burman CHIEFDOM POLITICS AND ALIEN LAW Wilhelm Deist THE WEHRMACHT AND GERMAN REARMAMENT Ricardo Ffrench-Davis and Ernesto Tironi (editors) LATIN AMERICA AND THE NEW INTERNATIONAL ECONOMIC ORDER Bohdan Harasymiw POLITICAL ELITE RECRUITMENT IN THE USSR Richard Holt SPORT AND SOCIETY IN MODERN FRANCE Albert Hourani EUROPE AND THE MIDDLE EAST THE EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN MIDDLE EAST Paul Kennedy and Anthony Nicholls (editors) NATIONALIST AND RACIALIST MOVEMENTS IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY BEFORE 1914 Richard Kindersley (editor) IN SEARCH OF EUROCOMMUNISM Gisela C. Lebzelter POLITICAL ANTI-SEMITISM IN ENGLAND, 1918- 1939 C. A. MacDonald THE UNITED STATES, BRITAIN AND APPEASEMENT, 1936-1939 Patrick O'Brien (editor) RAILWAYS AND THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF WESTERN EUROPE, 183o-1914 Roger Owen (editor) STUDIES IN THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL HISTORY OF PALESTINE IN THE NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES Irena Powell WRITERS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN T. H. Rigby and Ferenc Feher (editors) POLITICAL LEGITIMATION IN COMMUNIST STATES Marilyn Rueschemeyer PROFESSIONAL WORK AND MARRIAGE A.J. R. Russell-Wood THE BLACK MAN IN SLAVERY AND FREEDOM IN COLONIAL BRAZIL David Stafford BRITAIN AND EUROPEAN RESISTANCE, 194o-1945 Nancy Stepan THE IDEA OF RACE IN SCIENCE Guido di Tella ARGENTINA UNDER PERON, 1973-76 Rosemary Thorp and Laurence Whitehead (editors) INFLATION AND STABILISATION IN LATIN AMERICA RudolfL. TlSkes (editor) OPPOSITION IN EASTERN EUROPE WRITERS AND SOCIETY IN MODERN JAPAN Irena Powell St Antony's © Irena Powell 1983 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1983 978-0-333-27593-1 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without permission First published 1983 by THE MACMILLAN PRESS L TD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-05030-7 ISBN 978-1-349-05028-4 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-05028-4 To Mayama Miho sensei without whose generous help and understanding this book would have never been written Contents Acknowledgement Vlll Introduction lX I The Meiji Literary World: the Struggle for Modernisation lX 2 The Naturalist Avant-garde and the Formation of the Modern Bundan 22 3 From Flight to Self-destruction 38 4 In Search of Logic and Social Harmony 6o 5 In Search of Beauty 85 6 The Revolutionary Ideal I 03 7 Decline I I 7 Notes I35 Bibliography I 44 Index I47 vii Acknowledgement I should like to express my warmest thanks to my husband Brian Powell who supervised this work when it was still at its thesis stage, and who later gave me his full support throughout the lengthy process of rewriting the thesis into a book. Every effort has been made to trace all the copyright-holders, but if any have been inadvertently overlooked, the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. I. P. vm Introduction Modern japanese literature has increasingly attracted the attention ofs cholars over the past decade, but in spite of this it still remains an area largely unknown to the Western reader. Those who out of curiosity or interest struggle through the available translations are often left wondering about the meaning of the work or the intentions of the author. They are struck by the strangeness of unfamiliar issues, the odd solutions to conflicts or even the complete absence of such solutions. The plot is slack and undramatic, and there is a puzzling lack of'real' issues, which often seem to have been replaced by abundant imagery of an erotic or aesthetic nature. Such readers seldom find their expectations, nurtured on Western literary taste, at all satisfied. They do not derive the enjoyment expected from the act of reading a work of literature, nor do they, if that indeed was their original aim, increase significantly their know ledge about Japan. The degree of difficulty experienced by the Western reader in appreciating modern Japanese literature suggests perhaps a need for a frame of reference. This might enable him to increase his level of comprehension and add to the pleasure and enjoyment that an encounter with the unfamiliar world of the Japanese novel would bring. This should provide him not only with specific information about the intrinsic development of modern japanese literature, but also with a general picture of the cultural and social context in which such development took place. It is within the latter part of this proposition, in the extrinsic approach which examines the relationship between literature and society, that this book hopes to make a contribution towards a better understanding of the major themes and pre-occupations of modern Japanese literature. The purpose of this book is to seek some social explanations for the phenomenon of modern] apanese literature, to examine its environ ment and the forces which formed it. One reservation should perhaps be made here: that no single IX X Introduction relation is sought for as linking works of art on the one hand and social and cultural conditions on the other. No claim is made for exclusive validity in the following sociological explanation of art. The method is applied to demonstrate the various extra-literary influences which may be exerted on literature while avoiding the dogmatism of economic determinism. A sociological approach in literary studies is usually based on two major assumptions: first, that literary development derives not onry from the internal momentum of the literary tradition and, secondly, that literature is an aspect of society and, in a particular sense, a social institution around which traditions, customs and patterns of behaviour have come together. Literature lacks the firm structure of political, legal or religious institutions, but it has a distinct network of relations and processes (some of which will be discussed in this book) which make it possible to speak about it as an institution and to study it as such.1 The sociology of literature is generally divided into three main areas: the sociology of the writer, the social content of the literary works themselves, and the influence of literature on society. 2 This study will confine itself to the sociology of the writer, as it is here that the main discussion of literary institutions and of the profession of writing takes place. The sociology of the writer covers a wide spectrum of subjects: the writers, their socialisation and training, their roles, careers and modes of creati¥ity; the distribution and reward system, including patrons and publishers; critics with their typical outlets, forms of expression and their professional associations; and finally the public. It may involve certain models which are part of the Marxist inheritance. George Huaco, an American sociologist, suggests that literary phenomena are surrounded by what he calls the five social structures: He also maintains, however, that any relevant analysis of a historically specific matrix of art or literature has to refer the above
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