A Comparison Of The Descriptions Of Sex Between "Legend Of The Generation" And "The Ten Days"

The Love Rogue,the first erotic book written by Saikaku Ihara,is regarded as the beginning of Ukiyozoshi literature.This amorous novel was full of sexual description.During the Edo period when Neo-Confucianism was the mainstream ideology in Japan,the novel advocated the pursuit of sexual desire and opposed the asceticism preached by Neo-Confucian philosophy,which had positive affects in the early period of anti-feudalism.The Dacameron was written by Boccaccio between 1349 and 1353.1n the middle of 14th century,the Western world remained under the rule of feudalism.Capitalism first appeared in Italy,where was also the cradle of the Renaissance.The Dacameron was structure as a frame story containing various erotic tales,which not only reflected social phenomena,but also encourage people to enjoy physical pleasures.The book advocated humanism that emphasized the pursuit of secular happiness and individual emancipation,which dealt a harsh blow to the asceticism.The Love Rogue has a similar historical background with The Dacameron created more than 300 years earlier than the former.Sexual descriptions in the two books shocked the asceticism promoted by rulers,which expressed the desire of two emerging classes-the new bourgeoisie and the chonin class-to shake the shackles of feudalism for individual emancipation.Under parallel study,this paper made a comparison of amorous stories between The Life of an Amorous Man and The Dacameron to analyze the similarities and differences between the two classes when breaking the shackles of the asceticism.This paper consisted of three parts,including introduction,main text and conclusion.In the introduction,the author introduced the research status on anti-ascetic and anti-feudal thoughts of the two works.The main body consisted of three parts:Chapter one elaborated the appeal for anti-asceticism and sexual liberation in both works by comparison from four aspects;Chapter two analyzed the differences on love and the method against asceticism between the two works by comparing the description of erotic tales,through which the author found that Japanese literature focused on emotion without political factors while Renaissance literature was associated with social struggles;Chapter three mainly analyzed the purposes of the two classes pursuing sexual liberation and explored the reasons of the difference from their value orientation.Last part attempted to expound on the tradition of Japanese erotic literature from the view of cultural Oedipus complex,which is closely link to Japanese erotic literature from myths to later literary development,in order to explore why the Chounin class did not continue to struggle for overall liberation after sexual liberation.This paper highlighted the significant meaning of the two works on breaking the shackles of feudalism and asceticism by comparing the erotic descriptions and analyzed the differences on value orientation and cultural tradition between two classes and nations through different thoughts and ways of struggle reflected in both works.The paper,taking The Dacameron for comparison,deeply explored potential crisis when Japan and other eastern countries pursued sexual liberation,studied cultural and national psychology in Japanese erotic literature,analyzed how cultural Oedipus complex influenced Japanese national psychology and explained why the Chounin class did not continue to struggle for humanity liberation.