On The Spirit Of Humanism In Shiga Naoya's Literary Compositon

Shiga Naoya, the famous Japanese writer, plays a significant role in modern Japanese literary history. As one of the most important representatives of Shirakaba School, his literary works reflects humanism completely. Influenced by his own experience and trend of thought in his times, his humanism reflects not only individualism which is based on the rebel against Devine Authority, paternity and seeking for human rights, but also sympathy for the weak as well as anti-war ideas. Based on authentic Japanese works, this dissertation starts from the research of humanism and tries to find the reason for Shiga Naoya's self-awareness so as to expose the influence of this western trend of thought on modern Japanese intellectuals.This dissertation is composed of three chapters.In Chapter One the author exposes the formation of Shiga Naoya's self-awareness.Based on individualism, Shiga Naoya's humanism is formed gradually while his efforts of rebel against Devine Authority and paternity.Though blue-blooded, Shiga Naoya is unwilling to cling to the old ideas. In order to widen the horizon, he starts to pay close attention to western culture and tries to find answers from the prevalent Christianity. As a Christ for seven years, though enlightened by Christ ideas of equality and humanity, he is also fed up with its restraint on human natures and aware of the importance of liberation from human nature. His rebel against Devine Authority brings about not only his deviation from Christianity but also lead him to the way of literary composition.Young Shiga Naoya is tortured by ascetic doctrines as well as the tense relationship with his father. Brought up by his grandparents, Shiga Naoya has been alienated from his father since childhood. What's worse, his father's feudalist ideas and paternity have widened their gap. Shiga Naoya tries to expresses his dissatisfaction with paternity through such plots as patricide and things like this. In his works Shiga Naoya exposes and criticizes the malpractice of feudal paternity and finally shapes his individualism and self-awareness.Chapter Two is an analysis of sympathy for the weak in Shiga Naoya's individualism.Shiga Naoya's individualism combines individualism with his sympathy for the oppressed and the weak. Influenced by Russian realistic literary, Shiga Naoya once pays close attention to common people and depicts their hard living in an unfair society.Shiga Naoya also pays close attention to the oppressed the women. According to observation of his mother and step-mother as well as other women in his life, Shiga Naoya begins to realize their miseries of being ruled by the authority of patriarchy. As a result, he tries to show his sympathy toward them while composing his works. Shiga Naoya creates different types of female images from all walks of society, which reflects his ideas of caring for the weak.In Chapter Three, the author explores the anti-war ideas in Shiga Naoya's composition.As a firm pacifist, Shiga Naoya sticks to his own principles of literary composition and has not been influenced by the sequence of chaotic wars such as Russio-Japanese War, World War I and World War II. The formation of Shiga Naoya's moral integrity attributes to the anti-war instruction given by Uchimura Kanzōand mutual influence and support from other writers of Shirakaba School, as well as his relative's suffering in Russio-Japanese War. His uncle was badly hurt in the war, which made Shiga Naoya become aware of the cruelty of war. What's more, his uncle's stubborn support of the war after retreat from the battlefield made him conscious of the militaristic policy of obscurant.Based on his uncle's experience, Shiga Naoya includes his own opinions on war in his works. He depicts the cruel scene of battle; criticizes selective service; exposes the brutal nature of fascist armies. He even claims to overthrow the rule of mikado. Under the ruthless oppression of liberty of speech during the World War II, Shiga Naoya has not lost his identity and never composed for the militaristic regime. Free from political restraint Japan's defeat in the war, he publishes a number of review comments on issues such as punishing war criminals, reflecting on responsibilities for the war and instructing alive soldiers, and so forth.In one word, humanism in Shiga Naoya's works is embodied in the internal logic among individualism, humanity and rebellion. The seeking after human liberation and social equality and condemnation of war make Shiga Naoya's works larruping in modern Japanese literary.