From Narrative Morphology Modern Main Construct His Relationship

This dissertation surveys from the angle of narrative form the relationship between the construction of the modern subject and the others, by analyzing Soseki Natsume's six works written in the middle period of his writing, namely Sanshiro, And Then, The Gate(the Earlier Three), Until After the Equinox, The Wayfarer, and The Heart(the Later Three). These narrative texts, typical of modern Japanese literature, exerted great influences on the Japanese society at that time, creating a leading narrative tendency and reflecting Japanese writers'reflection and quest of the modern self. In the eighteenth century, when the Japanese society entered into modern times, the construction of the modern subject, i.e. the issue of the modern identity became one of the biggest concerns of modern Japanese literature. The issue of identity is embodied in the acceptance of both the value of self and the meaning and status of others, the acceptance of the latter directly connected with the establishment of self identity. Therefore, the establishment of the status of the modern subject is in fact closely bound up with the others. This dissertation aims at exploring the discourse mechanism constructing the modern subject, by analyzing the six narrative texts written by Soseki Natsume in the middle period of his writing. In other words, this dissertation intends to find out how the subject and others are brought into the modern identity framework of different phases.This dissertation is composed of three parts, namely Introduction, Body(five chapters) and Conclusion. The Introduction part reviews the researches in the past on the six narrative texts, puts forward the thesis of this study, explains the general framework, significance, object and methodology of this study, defines some core concepts and key categories, and points out the originality of this dissertation. The Body part analyses the evolvement of the relationship between the construction of the modern subject and the others seen in the five phases of the six texts. The first chapter analyses two texts--- Sanshiro and And Then. The matter of the modern identity is represented as the conflict between the subject and times and institutions, and the others do not indeed enter the discourse mechanism constructing the subject. The conflict between modern times and tradition is represented as the spatial distance between Tokyo and Kumamoto in Sanshiro and as the contradiction between the dictating"old family"and the"new family"permitting free love in And Then. Both texts are narrated from the third person limited perspective and the limited omniscient perspective. The character perspective of Sanshiro reflects his ideal modern self, but the limitation of the perspective and the objective comments made by the omniscient narrator exposes Sanshiro's pre-modern idea of"hypocrisy". Actually he is merely indulged in the imaginary identification with the others and becomes the"stray sheep"of that time. The body-based representation seen in And Then mirrors the idea of"showing evil"of Daisuke, who adheres to his pure self. Yet the omniscient narrator criticizes the egoism of Daisuke. The absence of the image of the"father"symbolizes the absence of the order of modern identity and the"vacuum"faced by modern individuals in their growth, or, to be more exact, the absence of the self awareness rebelling against the order of the traditional patriarchal clan system.Daisuke breaks with his family for the sake of"natural love", which symbolizes a kill-father ceremony. Despite that, the construction of the modern subject is not only a choice between the traditional"hypocrisy"and the modern"showing evil", but more importantly an issue of how to conciliate"I"with another self, i.e. the other, when establishing the self. Therefore, And Then finally raises the point of"guilt"and leads the matter of modern identity to the relationship between the subject and the others.The second chapter discusses the text of The Gate and argues that the daily narration tears off from the modern subject the sacred label of initiatory discourses like civilization criticisms, and that the existence of"guilt"gives prominence to the legality crisis threatening the"new family". In The Gate plural focus appears: The focus and psychological perspective of the others, like Yone and Koroku, disrupts the one-person narration of the hero, and the relationship between the modern subject and the others grows to be the motif of the story. The unopenable"gate"symbolizes the frustration of the modern subject. Sosuke's abstract speculation based on rational judgement and lack of practice reflects the shortcomings of modern tool rationality, and it becomes one of the tasks of Until After the Equinox to deconstruct and criticise the self awareness surplus seen in the modern subject.The third chapter analyses the narrative experiment conducted in Until After the Equinox and finds out that the most apparent change in narrative form is the introduction of the story of the others. The narrative embeds the story of Sunaga in the story framework of Ketaro at several levels, bringing the two stories into the relationship of intertextuality, aiming impliedly at surveying the modern subject through the eyes of the others. The"detective"story of Ketaro deconstructs the reliability of Sunaga's first-person narration: Sunaga is an unreliable narrator, because as a first-person narrator he does not share the thinking pattern with the implied author. Thereby the author criticizes the undesirable consequences of modern self awareness surplus.The fourth chapter analyses the text of The Wayfarer,discussing the construction of the transformation of the modern subject into the others. Just like Sunaga, Ichiro Nagano, the hero, is still trapped in the plight of self awareness surplus. Therefore, the task of narration is taken up by two others --- Jiro Nagano, who looks back on the story of the Ichiro couple, and Mr. H, who reveals the inner world of Ichiro through dialog. Ichiro Nagano becomes the object and focus of Jiro'narration and Mr. H, and the narration of the others realizes the construction of the transformation of the modern subject into the others. Narration reduces the dominace of the modern subject in texts, observes Ichiro and Nao from the same narrative perspective, stresses the conflict between the ethics of the"old family"and the idea of"I think", and points out the reason why the ideal order of the conjugality-based"new family"is not yet established.The fifth chapter mainly analyses The Heart, the last narrative text in the middle period of Soseki Natsume's writing. Literal works correspond with the reality not on a one-to-one basis, but as a system. Therefore, the analysis of The Heart must be based on the structure of the three articles as a whole, and the true motif can only be detected from the systematic inter-relationship of these articles. Actually, the"professor"and the"young man"represent the intellectuals of the Meiji Period and the Taisho Period respectively and the differences in their narrating and experiencing of self imply the dialog and communication between the two"first-person narrators/heroes". The Heart, a story about a"professor"returning to the other through associating with the other (the"young man"), can also be construed as a story about the growth of a"young man"(the subject) through associating with the other(the"professor"). In other words, the narrative structure of The Heart realizes the dialog and communication between two subjects. The"I"s at the two levels of narration act as the subject and the other mutually. The transformation of the subject into the other and vise versa emphasizes a kind of modern identity concept based on dialog and communication, i.e. intersubjectivity.Finally, the Summary part summarizes the main contents and the logic inter-relationship of the five chapters and draws conclusions.