A Study On Contemporary Japanese Ecological Literature

In recent years, with the progress of science&technology and the development ofsocial civilization, the ecological environmental problems are getting worse and worse,which has made human beings the victims of the civilization. When the progress ofscience and technology bringing happiness to human beings, it has also caused someunexpected disasters. Human beings have began to doubt simply on advanced scienceand technology, whether it is possible to solve the present tense relationship betweenman and nature and to solve the problems on mental levels such as man’s life attitudeand life style. To some extent, the attention from humanities and social sciences haschanged the research tendency of the literary world. Under such historical background,ecological literature research arose. As a literary form, under the influence ofecological thoughts trend, on the theoretical basis of holism, with the overall interestsof ecosystem as the highest value, ecological literature has aimed to explore ecologicalcrisis, mental crisis and spiritual crisis by means of investigating and expressing thecorrelation between man and nature. On the theoretical foundation of ecocriticism,with the historical development of Japanese literature as a clue, taking the classicalecological literature works of the Japanese writers in the1960s to the1980s foranalysis purposes, this thesis has illustrated the basic category—“sense of place”inthese works by way of applying “place”, a basic category of ecocriticism, in order toexplore the ecological crisis sense and ecological thoughts of contemporary Japaneseecological literature and point out the significance and influence of contemporaryJapanese ecological literature research.This thesis is composed of six chapters.Chapter1makes an general introduction to the emergence and developmenttrajectory of ecological literature, the concept of ecological criticism and thedevelopment and research features of Japanese ecological literature; it also illustratesthe research objective and research significance of this thesis.Chapter2makes detailed analysis of the representative ecology-warning workssuch as Teeth of Sea written by Mizukami Tsutomu and Polluted Sea written by Nishimura Kyotaro as they are both typical detective stories from ecologicalperspectives. Published in the1960s, with minamata disease (hydrargyrism) as itstheme, Teeth of Sea discloses the grievous injury of industrial public nuisance to man’slife and lives; it also exposes the disadvantages of environmental pollution andeconomic development. Polluted Sea actively explores and illustrates man’s spiritualecology, which contributes to its success of fully demonstrating the author’s ownecological wisdom.Chapter3mainly analyzes Isimure Michiko and her representative works: PureLand in Sea of Bitterness---Our Minamata Disease, Village of Gods and Fish ofHeaven. These three works have been named as the trilogy of “pure land in sea ofbitterness”. Pure Land in Sea of Bitterness---Our Minamata Disease covers someevents in the period of identifying hazards and forming a citizen meeting organizationto deal with minamata disease,which describes the victims’s sufferings mainly beforeminamata disease being socialized and politicized. As the second one of the trilogy of“pure land in sea of bitterness”, Village of Gods describes the period in which the ninefamilies of victims constructed prosecution in1969and attended the shareholders’meeting of Japanese nitrogenous fertilizer company in the next year when “prosecutiongroup” movement finally gained social attention. As a worrier and thinker ofecological problems, tortured in the severe years, Isimure Michiko has focused on theminamata disease victims who have been suffering a lot from the deterioratedecological environment. The salient feature of her work is the large use of dialects, thepoetic flavor buried in narration and stronger compression of literary signs. By meansof literary semiotics, from the angle of ecocriticism, Chapter3illustrates the threeworks written by Isimure Michiko.Chapter4focuses on Combined Pollution and Ariyosi Sawako’s Report of China;these two works were written by Ariyosi Sawako in1975and1979respectively. Ofobvious features of the time, the two works put forward some unavoidable ecologicalenvironmental problems such as air pollution, pesticides, chemical fertilizer and so on.They also point out the severity of public nuisance and seriously criticize the producersof public nuisance. Of unique ecological philosophical colors, these two works havedemonstrated a new awakening and pursuing and have been full of ethical evaluationand philosophical thinking. The environmental problems of China and Japan in the1970s described by the two books can provide some historical references for people now.Chapter5summarizes the literature works on nuclear energy problems in Japan.The peaceful use of nuclear energy after the war has become an important socialproblem that can’t be neglected since nuclear energy is a big hidden danger toecological pollution.“Nuclear literature” mentioned in this thesis aims at the “NuclearPower Station Literature” works showing nuclear power station construction after thewar. The so-called “Nuclear Power Station Literature” is in fact “nuclear power stationliterature”, which takes nuclear power station as its theme. Through these works,people may have insight into Japanese writers’ care and anxiety for peaceful use ofnuclear energy.Chapter6is centered on the essays of ecological awareness in the1970s to the1980s. Some writers focused on creating “Nuclear Power Station Literature” workswhile other writers focused on creating essays on the relationship between man andnature. After the1970s, especially the1980s, although some writers’ essays were stillimprinted with the impact from industrial pollution in the1960s to the1970s, that kindof strong accusing tone in the age of Isimure Michiko and Ariyosi Sawako could notbe found in these essays since lyrical style and idyllic style were mixed in them andtook an advantageous position. For instance, Sightseeing Tour of Japanese Riverswritten by Noda Tomosuke, Unexpected Meeting with Trees written by Takada Hirosiand Saint Tree---as Folk, Poet, Believer written by Yamao Sansei. The poetic languageand real scene might lead readers to rethink about the relationship between man andplace and the relationship between man and nature; they might also lead readers tothink how to experience the purity of nature by heart, which would arouse readers’attention to ecological problems.Chapter7summarizes the enlightening significance of contemporary Japaneseecological literature to Chinese literature. From Teeth of Sea written by MizukamiTsutomu to “Nuclear Power Station Literature” and essays of ecological literature, thesame voice expressing harmony of man and nature and harmony among people. Inaddition, this chapter points out the differences between contemporary Chineseecological literature and contemporary Japanese ecological literature in such aspectslike creation type, completion time and so on. Although some Japanese writers havethorough understanding of nature and possess strong awareness of ecology, their workshaven’t been sinking into the state of simply criticizing ecological crisis, from which Chinese ecological literature may learn and benefit a lot.At present, the research of contemporary Japanese ecological literature from theperspective of ecocriticism has not yet entered systematic and concrete research periodof using original records and solid evidences. Thus, from the angle of ecocriticism,examining contemporary Japanese literature and exploring the cultural and socialorigin of ecological crisis may contribute to the healthy development of Chineseecological literature research, which is also the target of this study.