Research On The Roles Of Smells In Kenji Nakagami's Akiyuki Trilogy

Kenji Nakagami(1946-1992)was born in the discriminated tribe in Kishu.In his works,he depicts the local customs and practices with a unique writing technique,meanwhile names the tribe "Roji",and discusses several problems such as complicated geography,consanguinity and discrimination.He is the first Akutagawa Literature Prize winner who was born after World War ? for his novel The cape in 1976,and occupies an important position in modern Japanese literary world.Following The Cape,Nakagami created the continuance The Deadwood(1977)and Supreme Time at the End of the Earth(1983).Because of the same heroine"Akiyuki",these three works are called Akiyuki Trilogy.In Akiyuki Trilogy,Nakagami not only told the story of Akiyuki who is trapped by consanguinity,but also created his own unique literary world----"Roji".In Akiyuki Trilogy,Nakagami described a lot of smells.These smells play very important roles in setting the background of the story,promoting the development of the story and creating the "Roji" world.However,the roles of these smells have not been sufficiently appreciated in the studies to date.Therefore,this paper takes Akiyuki Trilogy as the research object,based on the current theory of smells,using text analysis,induction and other methods to analyze the roles of smells in Akiyuki Trilogy.Based on the classification of smells,this paper discusses the roles of smells in setting the background of the story,promoting the development of the story and creating the "Roji" world.In the first chapter,I classify the smells in Akiyuki Trilogy based on the theories of smells.According to the quality of the psychological activities they induce,the smells are classified into "good smells" and "bad smells".According to whether they have deep connotations which are related to geography,consanguinity and discrimination,the smells are divided into "existential smells" and"meaningful smells".There are also smells which are created by the Nakagami's imagination that do not actually exist.These classifications provide an important reference for the subsequent analysis of smell roles.The second chapter discusses the roles of smells in setting the heroine,place and time of the trilogy.Through text analysis,it is found that the smells set Akiyuki as a person with a very sensitive sense of smell.The place is set as a place that is closed by mountains and sea,rich in nature but backward in modernization.The time of the trilogy is set in the summer when is very hot and bad things happen easily.The third chapter takes several typical smells as examples to discuss the roles of smells in promoting the development of the trilogy.Nakagami made use of the memory function of smell to show the different emotions of Mie and others towards the past,and mental activities of Akiyuki.He also used the evaluation function of smell to show the different emotions and attitudes of Akiyuki towards Noriko,Shichi's women and Yuki.Besides,Nakagami used the foreshadowing function of smell to set the stage for the tragedy of Akiyuki killing his brother Hideo.The fourth chapter tries to stand in the perspective of Nakagami literature,and explain how Nakagami used smells to create the Roji.In the first place,Nakagami recorded the change and extinction of the Roji by using the change of smells.Then Nakagami highlighted the complexity of the blood relationship in the Roji by associating smells of Fried eggs,porridge,incense and consanguinity.In addition,Nakagami revealed the essence of the Roji:the coexistence of discrimination and being discriminated.Smells play very important roles in Akiyuki Trilogy.Analyzing the roles of these smells is not only helpful for us to understand the background,development of the trilogy,but also provides reference for us to study Nakagami's "Roji" world.