UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I LIBRARY GENDER, THE BODY, AND DESIRE IN THE NOVELS OFNATSUME SOSEKI (1867-1916), FOCUSING ON ME/AN A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI'I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES (JAPANESE) DECEMBER 2002 By William N. Ridgeway Dissertation Committee: V. H. Vig1ielmo, Chairperson Joel R. Cohn Robert N. Huey Lucy B. Lower Joseph O'Mealy © Copyright 2002 by William Nelson Ridgeway iii For it migliorfabbro -Dante's Purgatorio xxvi, II? iv Abstract Tbis dissertation employs categories of analysis that previously have been under-appreciated, Ignored or unapplied in S6seki studies-gender, the body, and desire-both for textual explication and to examine the intrapersonal relationships in the novels ofNatsume S6seki (1867-1916), with emphasis placed on his final, uncompleted work, Meian (Light and Darkness, 1916). Instead of presenting literary representations of prevailing Meiji ideological positions such as risshin shuss. (rising in the world) entrepreneurism and success scenarios for men or ry6sai kenbo (good wives, wise mothers) domestic scenarios for women. S6seki focuses on erotic triangles which expose gender difference and gender inequalities of Meiji-Taish6 Japan. Investigation of fictional erotic triangles also reveals the possibility of homosocial desire in an age when discourse was increasingly antithetical to non-nonnative expressions of male-male desire. Soseki's gender representations frequently invert conventional gender expectations with his depictions of passive males and women desiring mastery over the male, and these depictions in tum are mapped and analyzed throughout the novelist's brief ten-year career as a novelist. Foucault's observation of the body-where local social practices are linked up with organization of power-assists in our better comprehending the formation of gender identities and the development of a national subject. Always embodying a historical moment, S6seki's novels open a window onto gender contlict, further the historicization of gender concepts, and finally suggest the possibility, in some cases, of resistance to gender/role stereotyping, as well as narrativize the author's personal ambivalence toward Western egalitarianism ofthe sexes. v Contents Abstract. .... v List ofFigures ..... vii Note on the Texts and Synopses ..... viii Preface x Introduction xiii Chapter 1 Theorizing Gender, the Body and Desire ..... 1 Chapter 2 Reading the Diseased Body: Fissure, Blindness, and The Gaze in Meian ..... 20 Chapter 3 Women on Top: Epiphanies in Botchan, Kusamakura, Sanshiro, Sorekara and Meian .. , .. 63 Chapter 4 Asymmetrical Erotic Triangles and Homosocial Desire in Gubijinso, Nowaki, Sorekara, Mon, Kojin, Kokoro, and Meian _.... 96 Chapter 5 The New Woman, The Femme Fatale, OsanlKoharu, Madonna/Whore 116 Chapter 6 Modem Love in Meredith and Soseki: The Dissolution ofa Marriage 143 Chapter 7 Success, Flanerie, and Tairiku ronin (Continental Wanderers) ..... 169 Chapter 8 In Conclusion: Matome I Recapitulation ..... 192 Appendices ..... 201 Notes .... 206 Works Cited ..... 221 Aonotated Bibliography ..... 221 vi List of Figures Figures Page 1. Erotic Triangles ofDesire in Gubijins6 8 2. Masculinity / Femininity 14 3. Schematic Differences Between Modernism and Postmodernism 19 4. Binarisms in Meian 34 5. Immanence vs. Transcendence 65 6. Gender Asymmetry and Erotic Triangles 101 7. The Sex Hierarchy: The Charmed Circle ys. the Outer Limits 113 8. Madonna / Whore 125 9. Continental Wanderers in the Works ofNatsume S6seki 187 10. Fit ys. Degenerate 199 vii Note on the Texts and Synopses The following Japanese texts and English translations are used in the body ofthis dissertation, in the Notes and Works Cited. Japanese citations are from Soseki zenshit (SZ, Complete Works) 34 vols. (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1957). English citations are from the translations below. K usa m a k u r a (Grass Pillow, 1906) SZ 4:5-127. The Three-Cornered Worid, trans. Alan Tumey (London: Peter Owen, 1965). In this haiku novel, a world-weary painter records his poetic journey in the mountains where he encounters at a hot-spring inn a woman with a mysterious past, O-Nami. G u b ij ins 6 (Wild Poppy, 1907) SZ 5:5-316. Unavailable in English translation. An overwrought novel in which the proud, beautiful, and wealthy heroine, Fujio, is felled by the shock and shame of rejection by Ono, who instead marries Sayoko, the daughter of his old teacher Kodo-sensei to whom he is more devoted. Nowak i (Autumn Wind, 1907) SZ 4:187-328. Unvailable in English translation. A tendenz novel in which the impoverished, tubercular aspiring writer Takayanagi uses the gift of one-hundred yen from his rich friend Nakano to publish a manuscript written by a former teacher Shirai Doya, idealist and man ofprinciples, who is unable to make a comfortable living from his writing. K ofu (The Miner, 1908) SZ6:5-199. The Miner, trans. Jay Rubin (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1988). A young man who has run away from home relates in skaz style his journey and his experience working in a mine. San s h i r 6 (Sanshiro, 1908) SZ 7:5-242. Sanshiro, trans. Jay Rubin (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1977). A bildungsroman about twenty-three-year-old Sanshiro, who, arriving in the capital fresh from the provinces to attend Tokyo University, ponders his role in a new world and its inhabitants, including the seductive Mineko. So r e k a r a (And Then, 1909) SZ 8:5-253. And Then, trans. Norma M. Field (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1978). Young gentleman of leisure and aesthete, Daisuke had allowed his friend Hiraoka to marry Michiyo, the girl they both loved. Realizing the depth ofhis love for Michiyo, now sick and neglected by Hiraoka, Daisuke wants her back. Hiraoka consents but forbids him to see her until she recovers. Daisuke's father, who has other marriage plans for his son, disowns him. The novel ends with the world spinning in flames around Daisuke. M 0 n (The Gate, 1910) SZ9:5-200. Mon, trans. Francis Mathy (London: Peter Owen, 1972). Guilty ofpast transgressions, Sosuke and O-Yone live in near poverty but relatively happily. Sosuke had stolen 0­ Yone's heart, which belonged to Yasui, a trusting friend. Hearing of Yasui's return from Mongolia, Sosuke seeks refuge in a Zen temple but finds no solace or enlightenment. Hi g a n S u g i Mad e (Until After the Spring Equinox, 1912) SZ 10:5-277. To the Spring Equinox and Beyond, trans. Ochiai Kingo and Sanford Goldstein (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1985). Point-of-view novel told in six stories from the perspective of young Tagawa Keitaro. "Sunaga's Story" relates Sunaga's tormented love for Chiyoko who loves him and at the same time despises him. Vlll K 0 j i n (The Wayfarer, 1913) SZ 11:5-335. The Wayfarer, trans. Beongcheon Yu (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1969). Ichiro doubts the fidelity of his wife, O-Nao, and urges his brother lira to test her. To break the domestic impasse, an old friend, H, takes Ichiro on a trip and reports back that Ichiro is earnest but believes himselfto be God and speaks in German, revealing his descent into near-madness. K 0 k 0 r 0 (Heart/Mind, 1914) SZ 12:5-234. Kokoro, trans. Edwin McClellan (Chicago: Regnery, 1957). Idle intellectual Sensei has lived a wasted life, guilty over having stolen the beloved of his best friend, K, who commits suicide. In a long, confessional suicide note to his student, Sensei asks that his secret not be revealed. M i chi k usa (Grass on the Wayside, 1915) SZ 13:5-230. Grass on the Wayside, trans. Edwin McClellan (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969). An autobiographical novel of the dreary life of Kenzo, besieged by his wife O-Sumi and set upon by brothers, sisters, and foster father, all wanting money from him. Me ian (Light and Darkness, 1916) SZ 14(0):6-262 and 15(ge):4-239. Light and Darkness, trans. V. H. Viglielmo (Tokyo: Tuttle, 1972). The marriage of Tsuda and O-Nobu is threatened when Kobayashi and others begin dropping hints about another woman. Tsuda departs on a trip to rendezvous with the woman in question. Kiyoko, his fonner fiancee. ix Preface According to UMI (formerly University Microfilms, Inc.), "The first American Ph.D. program was initiated at Yale University in 1860, with requirements that included at least one year of study on campus, an examination, and a dissertation based on original research. The first recipient was James Morris Whiton, whose dissertation in Latin on the proverb 'Brevis vita, ars longa' was accepted in 1861. Handwritten, it was six pages iong." The first English-language dissertation on Natsume Soseki was written by V. H. Viglielmo at Harvard in 1955. Typed on onionskin to yield carbon copies, it was 150 pages long. Nine dissertations in English on some aspect of Soseki have appeared over the years since then, including most recently Angela Yiu's "Chaos and Order in the Works of Natsume Soseki," (Yale University, 1992) and Reiko Abe Auestadt's "Natsume Soseki's K6jin (The Wayfarer) and Meian (Light and Darkness) Reconsidered," (University of Oslo, 1994). Auestadt includes Meian in her focus, whereas Yiu does not, mentioning it only to introduce Soseki's kanshi (poems in literary Chinese). Oddly, there has been no dissertation or book-length treatment in English on Meian as ofthis writing. Soseki has not been ignored in Japan, ofcourse, where he remains a publishing phenomenon. The nineteen nineties in Japan, in fact, witnessed a Soseki boom, with twenty to thirty books and two to three hundred scholarly articles on Soseki being published every year according to Ishihara Chiaki, editor of S6seki kenkyfl (Soseki Studies), on the occasion of the inaugural issue in 1993 [see my selected bibliography for examples].