Daniel Poch Dissertation
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Ethics of Emotion in Nineteenth-Century Japanese Literature: Shunsui, Bakin, the Political Novel, Shôyô, Sôseki Daniel Poch Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2014 ©2014 Daniel Poch All rights reserved ABSTRACT Ethics of Emotion in Nineteenth-Century Japanese Literature: Shunsui, Bakin, the Political Novel, Shôyô, Sôseki Daniel Poch This dissertation investigates how textual negotiations of “human feeling” and its ethically disruptive potential fundamentally shaped the production of literature in Japan over the early modern-modern divide well into the 20th century. “Human feeling” (Jap. jô, Chin. qing) was a loaded term in traditional Confucian discourses that subsumed amorous sentiment and sexual desire. It was seen as both a powerful force that could reinforce important societal bonds (such as the one between husband and wife) and as transgressive and ethically suspect. While traditional literary discourse, reaching back to the “Great Preface” of the Chinese Classic of Poetry (Shijing), defined poetry as a medium that could channel potentially unregulated emotions and desires, from the 18th century onward a strong awareness of “human feeling” started shaping the production of a broader spectrum of Japanese genres, such as jôruri puppet plays and, especially from the early 19th century, narrative fiction. I argue that the necessity to represent and write about potentially transgressive feelings and desires lies at the heart of major genres in 19th century Japan. At the same time this engendered the often conscious impulse to regulate these feelings ethically, for instance, through the specific dynamics of gender and plot. I define negotiations of “human feeling” as the simultaneous impulse in writing not only to represent but also to ethically and socially regulate and control feelings and desires. Precisely because the representation and negotiation of “human feeling” define the very essence of Japanese poetic writing and, from the 19th century onward, increasingly that of narrative writing as well, I argue that negotiations of “human feeling” are central to the broader emergence and formation of modern literature in Japan. My first chapter examines selected ninjôbon (“books of human feeling”) by Tamenaga Shunsui (1790-1843) and Kyokutei Bakin’s (1767-1848) long narrative yomihon (“books for reading”) cycle Nansô Satomi Hakkenden (Eight Dog Chronicle of the Nansô Satomi Clan, 1814-42). I examine how both ninjôbon and yomihon writings explore the deep opposition as well as the implicit affinity between “human feeling” and the sphere of Confucian ethics. My second chapter investigates a variety of novels (shôsetsu) written in the “long” decade of the 1880s: the translated novel Karyû shunwa (Spring Tale of Flowers and Willows, 1878-79), political fiction, and Tsubouchi Shôyô’s (1859-1935) rewriting and reform of political fiction at the end of the decade. I for instance examine how these novels – such as Suehiro Tetchô’s (1849-96) Setchûbai (Plum Blossoms in the Snow, 1886) or Shôyô’s Imo to se kagami (Mirror of Marriage, 1885-86) – allegorically negotiate both transgressive sexual desire and chaste spiritual love within a teleological plot structure of democratic reform and heroic activity. My third chapter turns to Meiji-period fiction after 1890, in particular to texts that thematize the new medium of art as well as the figure of the artist or the literary writer. I argue that these texts – Kôda Rohan’s (1867-1947) Fûryûbutsu (The Buddha of Romance, 1889), Mori Ôgai’s (1862-1922) German trilogy (1889-90), or Tayama Katai’s (1871-1930) Futon (The Quilt, 1907) – continue the ethical negotiation between transgressive sexual desire and spiritual feelings within an implicitly allegorical plot structure that points back to 1880s political fiction. My fourth chapter largely focuses on the diversity of Natsume Sôseki’s (1867-1916) early literary oeuvre, including various genres of poetry, so-called sketch writing (shaseibun), and novels. I argue that Sôseki’s literary experimentation, for instance in Kusamakura (The Grass Pillow, 1906), with various non- novelistic genres stems from the desire to devise an alternative regime of literature that mediates the representation of “human feeling” in a more detached manner than that of the novel. At the same time, Sôseki’s novel writing – as I demonstrate through my reading of Sorekara (And Then, 1909) – brings back a non-detached focus on “human feeling” that profoundly echoes the earlier attempt in 19th century fiction to reconcile transgressive feelings with the telos of a heroic and ethically driven plot. Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………1 Chapter One: Ethicality and Transgressive Love: The Ambiguity of “Human Feeling” in Tamenaga Shunsui’s Ninjôbon and Kyokutei Bakin’s Nansô Satomi hakkenden………………………25 Chapter Two: Renegotiating “Human Feeling” and Heroism in the Novel of the Long Decade of the 1880s: Marriage, Political Allegory, and Sexual Desire…………………………………………….83 Chapter Three: Spirituality and Sexual Desire in the Meiji Novel after 1890: Female “Visions,” Art, Nature, and Political Allegory………………………………………………………………………147 Chapter Four: Cold Detachment and Warm Ardor: Genre Experimentation, Nature, and Natsume Sôseki’s Literary Writings and Theory in the 1900s…………………………………………………206 Epilogue…………………………………………………………………………………….267 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………..277 i Acknowledgements My biggest debt of gratitude in completing this dissertation goes to my dissertation advisors at Columbia, Profs. Haruo Shirane and Tomi Suzuki, who contributed to the birth and growth of this project in innumerable ways. Not only did I initially encounter many of the texts discussed in this dissertation through their graduate teaching, but also the ideas and questions upon which this project became built are indebted to the stimulating context of their seminars. I would also like to thank them for their enthusiasm, their constant academic advice, their emotional support, and – last but not least – their trust and patience in giving me the necessary freedom to find my dissertation project. At Columbia Profs. Wiebke Denecke and David Lurie were important teacher and mentor figures to me. Wiebke, through the breadth of her work and thinking (but also through her kind care for me), always encouraged me to embrace and live the complexities of multiple interests and identities. I am thankful to David for his academic advice and feedback (including at my dissertation defense), and for being a model as a scholar and teacher. I also thank Prof. Paul Anderer for providing me with enriching perspectives on modern Japanese literature and Prof. Shang Wei for his helpful advice on my teaching and research. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Satoru Saito (Rutgers University) for having been willing to serve on my dissertation committee despite the fact that he was asked at the last minute. The sharpness and insightfulness of his criticism and advice at my defense will be instrumental in turning this dissertation into a more meaningful book. In Japan, I would like to thank most warmly Prof. Ikezawa Ichirô for acting as my sponsor during the two years of research and study, which I spent at Waseda University. Prof. Ikezawa not only numerously met with me and gave invaluable advice, but he also introduced me to his group of graduate students and often generously invited me to literary ii field trips. At Waseda, I also owe gratitude to Prof. Toeda Hirokazu and to Prof. Kôno Kimiko. Prof. Toeda, in addition to providing general support, made my initial accommodation at the university guesthouse possible and thus tremendously facilitated my research in Japan during the first year. Prof. Kôno kindly acted as my nominal sponsor for a year and (together with Prof. Wiebke Denecke) invited me to present at the workshop “The World of ‘Bun’ in Japan: Tradition and Future,” which was held at Waseda in June 2012. Moreover, I would like to thank Prof. Saitô Mareshi from the University of Tôkyô for taking his time to meet with me once and to provide valuable advice on my dissertation project. My project wouldn’t have been possible without the generous institutional and financial support of the Canon Foundation in Europe, Japan Foundation, Waseda University and Columbia University, which laid the material groundwork for four consecutive years of dissertation research and writing in both Tokyo and New York. I am also grateful for the stimulating questions as well as for the feedback and criticism, which I received when I gave presentations and talks on portions of my research at Waseda University, Columbia University, Northwestern University, Wellesley College and the University of Hong Kong. The group of cohorts and friends at Columbia provided an invaluable critical mass of academic exchange and was also an important source of companionship and fun. I couldn’t have done without them throughout the years. I would like to thank David Atherton for numerous important conversations during the reading and research stage in Tokyo, Nan Ma Hartmann for always keeping “Bar Nan” open and for offering me her friendship (despite my assertion in the first year that we weren’t friends), and Ariel Stilerman for the Little Branch in New York and numerous exploratory bike rides in Tokyo. I am also especially grateful for the companionship of Tom Gaubatz, Jenny Guest, Pau Pitarch Fernández,