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Servant Characters in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature

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Servant Characters in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature Serving Stories: Servant Characters in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature by Kristin Leigh Sivak A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto © Copyright by Kristin Leigh Sivak 2020 Serving Stories: Servant Characters in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature Kristin Leigh Sivak Doctor of Philosophy Department of East Asian Studies University of Toronto 2020 Abstract While the servants who appear in twentieth-century Japanese literature are often minor characters, they are far from insignificant. Rather, these servant characters in fact play a vital role in the narrative discourse seemingly out of proportion with the attention that their class, gender, and employment status—as well as a surface reading of the story—might lead us to expect. By exploring some of the different kinds of structural ‘work’ they do, then, as well as the ways in which their very literary nature grants them a degree of authority beyond that of their real-life corollaries, this dissertation aims to construct a narrative about a type of character whose impact on literary fiction well exceeds the bounds of the textual space they occupy. With this in mind, I take up an examination of servant characters in the works of three canonical authors who themselves experienced life with servants, Natsume Sōseki (1867-1916), Tanizaki Jun’ichirō (1886-1965), and Mishima Yukio (1925-1970). An analysis of servant characters offers an opportunity to explore issues of representation, power, and authority in modern Japanese fiction. From the ethical question of how to acknowledge those we cannot speak for, to examining the connections between domestic spaces and literary spaces, to uncovering the latent power of traditionally undervalued forms of labor, ii this dissertation proposes a narratological examination of the role of servants in twentieth- century Japanese fiction as a means for rethinking questions of representation and the plurality of perspectives in literature. Over three chapters, I discuss questions of literary ethics and what it means to respect and acknowledge the blind spots that always accompany difference, how servant characters share and construct the domestic space with their employers, and how the embodied intimacy and unbridled access afforded servant characters might empower them even to take control over their employers’ narratives. In doing so, I argue for a reconsideration of what it means for the minor to assert itself from within the canon, proposing new ways of thinking about the structural dimensions of representation, power, and authority as revealed through the roles of minor servant characters. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation could not have been completed without the tireless support of my professors, my friends, and my family. Without my supervisor, Atsuko Sakaki, none of this would have come to fruition. Her always thoughtful and inspiring feedback and her dedication to my success have pushed me to keep going through all the ups and downs that accompany a project of this magnitude. Thank you as well to my other committee members. To Janet Poole, thank you for listening to my ideas and my plans, and for your support and encouragement, and to Graham Sanders for your time and your insights, and for your continued interest in my project. My thanks to the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Visa Award program for funding a year of my studies in Canada, and to the Japan Foundation, for providing me with the opportunity to undertake a year of research at Hokkaido University. I am grateful to Oshino Takeshi for welcoming me into the department, and for his early interest in my project. I would not have been prepared for any of this without my wonderful undergraduate education at Boston University and the incredible dedication and encouragement of my professors there. My thanks in particular go to Mariko Itoh Henstock, for inviting me into the Japanese program and starting me on this path, and to Keith Vincent, for giving me the tools, drive, and encouragement to turn it into a PhD. Thank you to all of my friends, colleagues, and mentors at the University of Toronto. Whether we had frequent in-depth conversations or only ever exchanged friendly smiles in the hallway, know that it meant the world to me. My specific thanks go to Natasja VanderBerg and Norma Escobar for keeping the department running, to Edwin Michielsen for the hours of thought- provoking conversation, to Na Sil Heo, for your company throughout numerous writing sessions, and to Michael Tseng, for challenging my thinking, pushing me to work, and making me laugh in between. To Elizabeth and Victoria Wiet, thank you for sticking with me along our parallel academic adventures from high school on, and for so beautifully interweaving discussions of theory and literature with over a decade of inside jokes. I can’t wait to see where we go next. And thank you, lastly, to my incredibly supportive family for being there for me emotionally, physically, and financially this whole time. You listened to me ramble on with excitement with the same love and patience with which you listened to me whine and complain, and I cannot thank you enough. I know you’d love me PhD or not, but I hope I’ve made you proud nonetheless. iv Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ iv Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................................v Introduction Serving Stories: Servant Characters in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature ..............1 Power and Servitude: Negotiating the Place of Servants in the Home and Society ............4 Family, Nation, Service: A Brief History of Servants in Japan .........................................22 Japanese Approaches to Servants and Servant Characters ................................................28 Servants as Characters, Servants as People .......................................................................35 Methodology, Structure, and Caveats ................................................................................50 Chapter Preview .................................................................................................................57 Chapter 1 Natsume Sōseki and the Ethics of Representing Domestic Servants ..................................63 Now You See Them, Now You Don’t: The Maids of Kokoro ..........................................66 Maids are People, too: Class and Individualism ................................................................72 Individualism, Alterity, and Where Individuals Meet Characters .....................................76 I Am, You Are: Maids in the Dialogic Space of I Am a Cat .............................................86 Unofficial Narratives and Designated Allegories in And Then .......................................100 Blind Spots and Spectacle: The Distribution of Narrative Attention in Sōseki’s Fiction ..................................................................................................................111 Glancing Blind Spots in To the Spring Equinox and Beyond ..........................................122 The Servants Will Talk: Family Stories and Servant Voices ..........................................128 Maid Problems and Missing Pieces in To the Spring Equinox and Beyond ....................132 Representation or Speculation: The Self and the Other in Literature ..............................144 v Chapter 2 Building a Home with Servants in the Works of Tanizaki Jun’ichirō .............................148 Building Space for Servants: Domestic Labor, Aesthetics, and the Japanese Home ......152 Writing Shadows on the Walls: Servants, Aesthetics, and History .................................158 The Porosity of Home: When Nostalgic Spaces Meet Modern Living ...........................169 Making a Family Work: Sharing a Home with Masters and Servants ............................177 No Room for Secrets: Rumors, Gossip and Maids ..........................................................184 Setting Terms and Telling Stories: Managing Emotional and Narrative Labor ..............191 Literary Work vs. Housework..........................................................................................203 Archiving Servants: Making History with Maids ............................................................213 Chapter 3 Physicality and Presence: Mishima Yukio’s Diabolical Maids .........................................242 Confessions of a Mask: From the Mouths of Maids ........................................................245 Presence, Threat and Power: Mind and Body in Sun and Steel .......................................254 Keep Your Servants Close (and Closer and Closer): Iinuma and the Question of the Houseboy as Both Friend and Enemy ..................................................................260 Service, Weaponized: Tadeshina in Spring Snow............................................................268 Passing Notes: The Matter of Miné .................................................................................276 Revolting Servants in Madame de Sade ..........................................................................286
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