On Disease Metaphor In Natsume Soseki’s Love Trilogy

Soseki Natsume is an outstanding writer in the history of modern Japanese literature.Suffering from neurasthenia and gastric ulcer,which not only affected his life,but also became one of the source of his writing,he imbued these diseases consciousness with his works,and endowed them with rich literary connotations.As a “national writer” of Japan,Natsume Soseki wrote a large number of popular works in his short literary career.Among them,the novels Sanshiro,Henceforth and The Gate are known as “Love Trilogy”.These three worksare closely connected with each other in the background of the times and the characters.They are excellent works in the history of modern Japanese literature and have had a profound influence on Japanese people.These three works depicts the images of intellectuals and new women who suffered from diseases.The birth of these literary characters is closely related to the writer’s own experience and his time,and is the true representation of the writer’s inner world.With his unique writing style and exquisite techniques,the writer reproduced the growth and ideological changes of intellectuals and new women in the Meiji era,showing the contradictions and conflicts between individuals and society,exploring the living conditions and the meaning of existence of modern intellectuals and new women,and criticizing social realities and searching for the meaning of life.This paper is divided into five parts.The main contents are as follows:The introduction part systematically introduces the motivation and significance of this research,the previous researches at home and abroad and the research methods adopted in this paper,gives an overview of the previous studies in China and Japan on Natsume Soseki’s works in the aspect of diseases and metaphor,and points out the research perspective of this paper.The first chapter is about the disease narrative in the “Love Trilogy”.Through text analysis,the disease phenomena in these three works are interpretedwith focus on the various physiological and mental illness phenomena of intellectuals and new women in the Meiji era.Intellectuals are represented by Sanshiro,Daisuke and Sosuke,and new women Michiyo and Ami.The second chapter introduces the metaphorical meanings of diseases,focusing on conflict and separation,crime and punishment,the role dilemma of new women,and disease and healing.Through analysis,it shows the contradictions betweenfeudal ethics and modern Japanese intellectuals and new women’s pursuit of self in the conflict between Eastern and Western civilizations,exposes the social malaise hidden by Japanese modern civilization,and reveals the living conditions and meaning of modern intellectuals and new women.The third chapter analyzes the causes of the characters’ illnesses in the "Love Trilogy",focusing on the turbulent social conditions of the Meiji society and the writer’s own experiences,thoughts,emotions and literary view,and explores the causes of diseases of intellectuals and new women in Soseki Natsume’s "Love Trilogy" from the perspectives of the writer and the society.The conclusion part briefly describes the existing problems and prospects for the future,and proposes a new direction for the study of Natsume Soseki’s works.