THE WAY OF MODERN JAPANESE FICTION: THE CONCEPT OF 'GEIDO' AND THE NOVELS OF TANIZAKI JUN'ICHIRO AND KAWABATA YASUNARI

The dissertation examines the concept of geido (the way of art) which developed in Japan as a theory of art, and how the concept has been adopted by two modern Japanese novelists, Tanizaki Jun'ichiro (1886-1965) and Kawabata Yasunari (1899-1072).;The concept of the way of art was established in poetry by the two poets as a path by which a beginner could be guided by a master through a long training process to the attainment of the highest aesthetic qualities. The same aesthetic ideal spread to other genres of Japanese arts, which established their own distinctive way according to the basic concept of geido.;The genre of prose fiction in pre-modern Japan was never admitted to the select group that formed the network of geido, because its artistic potentially remained suspect. With the modernization of the country, however, the novel became heralded as the leading literary form for the new age. This sense of newly-gained importance encouraged many modern Japanese novelists to experiment in earnest.;A peculiar mode of writing called the I-novel became a center of literary debates as the modern Japanese novel developed. The peculiarity of the I-novel lies in its lack of aesthetic distance between the author's personal self and his fictional protagonist. Those who are concerned with maintaining aesthetic distance in fictional writing have continued to criticize the I-novel, engaging in numerous literary debates with the form's proponents. One such debate is known as "watakushi-shosetsu ronso" (the I-novel controversy) of the Twenties. This debate, well-known in the history of modern Japanese literature, marked the beginning of the formation of the way of the novel for Tanizaki, and the initiation of Kawabata to Tokyo literary circles.;The concept of geido was first developed by two medieval poets, Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) and his son Teika (1162-1241), as a response to the charge made against literature by Buddhism. The Buddhist view of literature maintained that literary works were but kyogen-kigo (misguided, embellished words) that interfere with a true religious devotion. Shunzei and Teika opposed such a dogmatic criticism by arguing that the unity of kokoro (heart, or poetic spirit) and kotoba (words, or poetic material) in a work of art embodies, rather than hinders, the understanding of the essence of Mahayana Buddhist teachings, the philosophy of sunyata (emptiness).;Chapter I of the dissertation reviews the development of the "I-novel controversy" and analyzes the critical positions taken by Tanizaki and Kawabata in response to the controversy. Chapter II examines the concept of geido, how it compares with modern theories of art, especially those of prose fiction. Chapter III focuses on Tanizaki's way of the novel, how he has adopted the traditional aesthetic ideals to his modern work. Tanizaki successfully recreates the beauty of geido in what he calls "the world of shadows" by exploiting the ambiguity inherent in the dramatized narrative.;Chapter IV studies Kawabata's way of the novel, and finds it very different from Tanizaki's in both kokoro and kotoba. Whereas Tanizaki starts with a conviction that the beauty of geido can be recaptured in a modern novel, Kawabata begins with a sense of loss, of the irrevocability of the past. Unlike Tanizaki who erects his way of the novel on the manipulation of the narrative discourse, Kawabata bases his on the use of metaphoric images, abandoning the creation of a sustained plot or characterization.