Kenzaburo Oe's New Man Ideal

This article takes Kenzaburo Oe's ideal of young men of the new age as the research object and discusses the practical significance,content presentation,creative method etc.,mainly through the research method of close reading while combining the context of social history and culturological theory,in order to clarify the development vein and cultural connotation of this ideal.Kenzaburo Oe is a famous Japanese litterateur.Intellectuals' sense of responsibility to intervene in society fighting humanitarianism are major manifestations of literary and realistic value provided by Oe.The ideal of "new man"is raised for the ambiguous situation of Japanese society and the crisis of the possible resurrection of militarism.New young people need to inherit positive heritage of postwar democracy,recognize the history,explore new future for Japan,and avoid the same mistake committed by militarism.In Oe's works,the term "new men" contains multiple connotations,and the new men studied in this article mainly refers to the young men of the new age,who are often represented by child and juvenile figures in his works.In terms of content,Oe's ideal of young men of the new age experiences the following development process:the "I" in his early representative work of "Nip the Buds,Shoot the Kids" being the first child rebel,can be seen as the prototype of the new young men.Although this revolt was not thorough enough,it reflects the subject's pursuit of existential value and rebellious spirit against the dark reality.In Oe's representative work of his next phase "Rouse Up,O Young Men of the New Age!",Oe combines Blake 's poetry,his own family experiences and the existing social maladies,and appeals for independent thinking and resistance against arbitrary power for the young men of the new age represented by his eldest disabled son.The concept of "new men" hence appears repeatedly in Oe's works.In "The Children.of 200 Years",Oe's later representative work,he explained the manifestation and characteristics of the new man.The children who traveled two hundred years in their dreams inspected Japanese modern history.Children's abundant imagination is a powerful weapon to break the mental shackle of the emperor system,and their spirits,such as integrity,independence,and cooperation also express Oe's wish to oppose violence and maintain peace.In general,"new men" evolves from the early lone rebel image,to the middle-phase staggering and renascent disabled son,and then to the later child alliance who are unified,autonomous and trying to break through the dark future.These images are extended constantly and the connotations of the ideal of new men are also enriched all the time.In terms of method,the ideal of new men is characterized by marginal and mythological natures.The marginality of the new man ideal is reflected by the construction of a typical image of marginal men,the deepening of the relations between children subject and marginal places,and so forth.Besides,the mythological nature is derived from the prototype of child god and legends about children,and Oe completed the deconstruction of the imperial myth of "eternal hereditary monarchy"with legends where children acted as saviors.In addition,for Oe,prototype of death-rebirth and redemption thoughts contained in the new man ideal are source power for Japanese modern society to move towards rebirth from muddiness.In terms of practical significance,Oe eagerly hoped that new men could see the history clearly,stick to positive heritage of humanism,reach real reconciliation with neighboring countries,and jointly create a bright future."New man" is a prescription he wrote for the ambiguous Japan and also conveys his hope to make Japan reborn.