| This thesis explores the affect of the emperor-centred visual culture on Soseki's use of visual methodologies in his travel writing in London and Manchuria, as well as his novel Sanshiro. In Part I of this thesis, I argue that Soseki's anxiety and ambivalence was in part due to the visual culture created around an imperial image infused with symbolic power. Part II of this thesis is almost a reversal of the first, as it discusses Soseki's use of deliberately visual methodologies to express his anxiety and ambivalence towards modernity. In light of my discussion of these complex visual techniques, I conclude by briefly addressing the allegations of Soseki's complicity in Japanese imperialism and the (non-)politicization of his work. While Soseki's anxiety and ambivalence may have been caused by the extremely visual culture centred on the emperor, it also provided him with a means and methodology for expressing his pessimism. |
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