Abstract
Many histories of modern Japanese literature see the "completion" of the modern vernacular style in the writings of Shiga Naoya (1883--1971), Mushakōji Saneatsu (1885--1976) and Takamura Kōtarō (1883--1956). Why and how this critical-historical perception of stylistic normalcy arose and still continues is better understood, I propose, through a close reading of key texts that identifies instances and patterns of creative manipulation of-as opposed to mere determination by or complicity with-certain philosophical, social, and historical discourses.How this creative manipulation plays out varies in prose and poetry and from text to text. In Mushakōji's Omedetaki hito (1911; The Simpleton), temporal and generic transitions establish a doubled discourse of sincerity that normalizes the genbun itchi prose into the background. In Shiga's An’ya kōro (1921--37; A Dark Night's Passing), certain syntactical and lexical innovations construct a new and rigid model of intuitive interiority. Takamura's Dōtei (1914; The Journey) reverses, to its own literary historical advantage, gendered discourses on the Japanese language and Japanese literary history.
Degree
MA
College and Department
Humanities; Humanities, Classics, and Comparative Literature
Rights
http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/
BYU ScholarsArchive Citation
Lee, Jacob Zan Adachi, "Style, Discourse, and the Completion of the Vernacular Style in Modern Japanese Literature" (2013). Theses and Dissertations. 3629.
https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/3629
Date Submitted
2013-06-28
Document Type
Thesis
Handle
http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd6355
Keywords
discourse, genbun itchi, literary history, Mushakō, ji Saneatsu, Shiga Naoya, style, Takamura Kōtarō
Language
English