The Study Of Individuality And Sociality In Ichiyo Higuchi’s Akatsukidukiyo, Jyusannya And Warekara

Considered as Murasaki Shikibu in Meiji period, Ichiyo Higuchi is one of the early pioneers in the Modern Japanese critical literature. Her works mainly focus on the tragedy of females. The paper puts a particular emphasis on her three representative works:Akatsukidukiyo, Jyusannya and Warekara. Based on full advantage of the background and context of writing, the thesis tries to interpret the text from a new perspective.The characters of female shaped in the novel have great connections with Ichiyo Higuchi’s personal experience. The writing of three novels represents the awakening of her feminist consciousness, as well as the quest for self-independence. The protagonists in the novels are Ichiyo Higuchi’s spokesmen, representing the transition of her attitudes towards feminist consciousness. The ideological shackles of the feudal society cause females’ tragedy; however, feminist consciousness and sense of independence prompted the transition of the female protagonists in the novel, which is undoubtedly the qualitative leap in Ichiyo Higuchi’s writing career.This paper mainly consists of four chapters:Chapter one concerns about the era where Ichiyo Higuchi lived and her life experience, which had great impacts on her later career. Ichiyo Higuchi herself is the combination of life and literature, containing the contradiction in itself. There is great connection between the transition of feminist consciousness and social background.Chapter two analyzes the tragedy of female in Jyusannya. The loss of "self consciousness" is the main cause for the submission to the feudal society. Invisible shackles of the traditional social values and self-restraining lead to the tragedy of females. Limited by her experience, Ichiyo Higuchi’s early works are difficult to achieve a breakthrough.Chapter three focuses on the quest for feminist consciousness."Male supremacy" mentality is still overwhelmingly dominant in that society, however, Ichiyo Higuchi sensitively captures the seeds of self-consciousness. The self-questioning of the new mistress implies the seeds of feminist consciousness and sense of self-existence. Although she didn’t take a firm step at last, a breakthrough in ideology has made it available to reinterpret women’s values and question the value system of "male supremacy".Chapter four discusses that the protagonist gets rid of various constraint, and airs the call for women’s freedom in warekara. This is an important step in the development of Ichiyo Higuchi’s feminist consciousness, as well as a great leap in her writing career. Ichiyo Higuchi tries to explore the ideology of whole female class from a macro perspective. Compared to the first two novels, she describes the psychological state of the heroine more vividly, so that we can fully grasp the extremely contradictory and complex mentality of the women in feudal society. The rebellion of the protagonist at last represents not only her own voice but also the whole women class.All in all, from YiChong, then AGuan, and ATing, the shaping of the three characters, describes respectively the image of women of the old society, women with awakening feminist consciousness, and women in the new era. The author accomplished two critical leaps in her writing, making outstanding contributions to feminist consciousness studies and cultural history of Japan.