On Shanghai By Riichi Yokomitsu

Riichi Yokomitsu (1898-1947) is one of the representative writers in the neo-sensualism cultural movement from1920s to1930s in Japan. He always advocates "Revolution of Culture". He pursues innovation of forms through highly symbolic techniques of expression and bold article structures in his work. As a standard-bearer in Japanese neo-sensualism culture, He is famous for being good at putting subjective feelings into objective expressions and building symbolic conscious images. Shanghai is a work made in the cultural heyday of the new-sensualism. Starting from the end of1928and finishing at the beginning of1931, Riichi Yokomitsu made Shanghai his masterpiece in the new-sensualism period.In the book Shanghai, for the first time, Riichi Yokomitsu used novel to design a grand theme. It is also his first time to try to break the limitations of personal feelings and face the political situation in a foreign country. The novel is set in the third year of Yokomitsu’s stay in Shanghai, i.e.1925. The setting is the first large-scale national democracy movement in Chinese modern history-May30th Movement. In the night before the May30th Movement, the leading characters in the novel came onto stage in succession. They have different nationalities. They are representatives of various classes in Shanghai and embodiments of various ideas. The author hopes to give an overall description of Shanghai, a huge and complicated city, by using these characters. However, in the novel, there are no specific dates of events happening to the characters. And there are no specific locations of the descriptions of Shanghai where the characters live, either. This has drawn a lot of attention in the Japanese literature world. But all the efforts which have been done are limited to the comparison between the time and location present in the novel and the May30th Movement and the real geographical location of Shanghai. As for how the author uses time and space to give an overall description of Shanghai, this essay will discuss it by trying to use literary criticism theory in narratology. In this essay, the writing techniques in Shanghai will be demonstrated by using research methods in narratology about the time, focus and space. In the1st chapter of this essay, the time structure of Shanghai is analyzed by using the theories about novel time in narratology, which introduces the time processing method used by Riichi Yokomitsu in Shanghai. In Section1, literary criticism methods in narratology are introduced, mainly about the time of narrative literature. And the reasons why these theories are applied in Shanghai are also illustrated. In section2, the descriptions about time in Shanghai are listed, analyzing the time of events without specific dates. In section3, the time structure of the novel is analyzed, trying to demonstrate the multi-dimensional processing methods in dealing with the one-dimensional story time used by Yokomitsu.In Chapter2, the focusing technique in the novel Shanghai has been analyzed by using the focusing theory in narratology. In Section1, the focusing theory in narratology is introduced. And the unfocusing mode with third-person, which is third-person narrative in the whole perspective, in the novel Shanghai is also demonstrated. In Section2, the narrative characteristics of unfocusing mode with third-person in Shanghai is specifically analyzed. In the narrative mode of unfocusing situation, the narrator can enter the minds of the characters freely and describe the thoughts and psychological conditions of them. In Shanghai, the description of the complicated personality and thoughts of the leading character Sangi is achieved by using this mode. However, the know-it-all narrative of the unfocusing mode may easily lose trust among readers. In Shanghai, the description of the characters is not given directly by narrators, but often from the third person’s angle. The descriptions of the main characters, Sangi, Kyooko and Hoosyuuran, are all completed by quotes from the third person. Therefore, the know-it-all narrative in the unfocusing mode has not lost its credibility. In Section2, the problem of no’untrustable narrators’in Shanghai is analyzed. In Section3, the unfixed focusing, i.e. the change of angles in the novel has been illustrated, mainly by the focused analysis of the character, Sugi.In Chapter3, The novel space in Shanghai is discussed by using novel space theory in narratology. In Section1, the novel space theory in narratology used in this chapter is introduced, and the reasons why it is used in Shanghai are analyzed. In Section2, the story space consisting of dots and lines is analyzed. In this way, how Riichi Yokomitsu shapes the complicated space in Shanghai, a colony in1930s, is discussed. For the description of the complicated city space in Shanghai, although a lot of descriptions of the same scene are given, they are actually not the same. This is because the descriptions are given from different angles of different characters. And even if from the same angle of one character, the image may change in different moods of the person. This is what has been discussed in Section3.To sum up, by using the literary criticism theory in narratology, the essay discusses the characteristics of the structure and narrative of the novel, Shanghai, by analyzing the time, focus, and space in it. In this way, the unique novel-writing strategy used by Riichi Yokomitsu is demonstrated, revealing the great charisma of novel writing.