The Binary Opposition In Kobo Abe' Ovels

Kobo Abe(1924-1993)a famous Japanese novelist and playwright,occupied an extremely important position in the history of post-war Japanese literature.He has been praised as "the writer who should have deserved a Nobel Prize in Literature" in Japan and even in the world literature.On March 21st,2013,Chairman of the jury of the Nobel Prize in Literature,Per Westerberg said in an interview of Yomiuri Shimbun:"if not because of the sudden death,Kobo Abe should have won the Nobel Prize in literature."As a representative of Second Generation of Postwar Writers,Kobo Abe showed a great concern for the survival state of postwar Japanese because of his vagrant life experience.In the 1950s and 1960s,after the failure of the war,although Japan achieved the economic recovery,the reconstruction of the national spirit didn't kept pace.Kobo Abe once pointed out that:"in the Japanese society at that time,people were filled with anxiety,and interpersonal relationships became complicated and abnormal".Therefore what Kobo Abe showed in his description of the Japanese society and Japanese in the novels was not peace but contradiction and conflict.Among the large groups of his works,novelette The wall—The Crime of S.karma and full-length novel The Face of Another especially reflected prominently this kind of contradiction and conflict.The Face of Another which is thematically continuous with The wall—The Crime of S.karma,described the limit state of human existence under conditions of freedom and confinement.From the narrative techniques,both The wall—The Crime of S.karma and The Face of Another start with that the hero lost his name or face which can prove their identity.In order to make better understanding of the literary theme and writing style of Kobo Abe,it is necessary to analyse the two representative novels.According to the data of the existing research results,most academic studies of Kobo Abe's novels in both Japan and China are concentrated on his background,the writing technique or in-depth analysis of keywords to discuss The wall—The Crime of S.karma and The Face of Another.In the process of study,I found that the two novels clearly reflect the characteristics of binary opposition no matter on the set of plot structure or the set of character.Therefore,I decided to use binary opposition analysis method to analyze The wall—The Crime of S.karma and The Face of Another,As one of the important concepts of structuralism,binary opposition analysis method originates from Saussure's structural linguistics.Semantic matrix proposed in Structural Semantics by Greimas in 1966 is the model of binary opposition analysis in structural linguistics applied to analyze narrative texts.Binary opposition analysis is the theoretical basis in this essay for the author to discuss the binary opposition in Kobo Abe's two novels.The paper is divided into four chapters.In chapter one,first of all,I will explain the origin and concept of binary opposition analysis method,and demonstrates the possibility of using binary opposition analysis method to analyze the literature.Then,I want to illustrate the necessity of using binary opposition analysis method to analyze the wall—The Crime of S.karma and The Face of Another.Next I will introduce the content of the two works,and elucidate the position in the history of literature.In the rest three chapters,I will focus on three significant binary opposition elements of the novels through three aspects.The first binary element is the opposition between subject and object.This opposite relationship is the most significant feature in the plot development of the two works.The subject and object of the wall—The Crime of S.karma refer to respectively the hero"me" who lost the name "Karma" and the business card which carried off the name from "I" I will elaborate the opposition relationship between subject and object from there aspects:the strong and the weak,the internal and the external,people and things.The subject and object in The Face of Another refer to the hero "I" who lost face and the mask well designed by "I".I will analyze the relationship from three aspects,namely,the strong and the weak,interior and surface,block and recovery.Through theabove analysis,it can be seen that the object precedes the subject.In the contest between subject and object,subject loses control gradually.At the same time,because of the separation of subject and object,self can not prove its completeness,and loses its rights of integral existence in daily life.Self's fragility and cleavage surface through this opposition.The second binary element is the opposition between Individual and neighbor.Neighbor is a very important concept in Kobo Abe' novels.Neighbor refers to the people within the community.In other words,the people who have geopolitical contact or lineage contact with individual.The individual and neighbor in the wall—The Crime of S.karma refer to hero "T" and father.The individual and neighbor in The Face of Another are the hero "T" and wife.Through the analysis of parent-child relationship between "T" and father,and spousal relationship between "I" and wife,We can find a truth that the relationship between individual and neighbor has changed from intimacy to alienation.And the result is corresponding to neighbor kill phenomenon that Kobo Abe once said.Though individual has geopolitical contact or lineage contact with neighbor,individual is still in a lonely state and can not get help from neighbor.The third binary elements is the opposition between individual and society.As a community that individuals live in,society has special form or meanings in the novels of Kobo Abe.In the wall—The Crime of S.karma,society is organ of authority judicatory.On the one hand,"I" am under oppression from judicatory.On the other hand,I revolt against the social unfair treatment.In The Face of Another,the meaning of society is isolated society.In this isolated society,I am rejected,at the same time,I try to escape from this state.Society in the two novels are persecutors.However,facing oppression from society,individual is not content to remain where he is.The wall—The Crime of S.karma's hero"I" transforms into wall,and The Face of Another's hero "I"takes the mask to revolt.In a word,the opposition between individual and society?mainly reflects the oppression from society and resistance to the society.Through the analysis of opposition between subject and object,individual and neighbor,individual and society in these two novels,not only can we understand Kobo Abe how to show and reveal the survival conditions of post-war Japanese,But also the novel fans deepen the understanding of the two novels.