我這個學期修了日本文學， 是基礎課， 比較簡單， 這個是我寫的一個作業， 關於
natsume soseki 和他的作品kokoro的， 和大家一起分享
問題
Natsume Soseki's fiction can be read as an examination of the anguishees and strains of modern life in Meiji and early Taisho period Japan. To what degree does a work like Kokoro seem to support or refute this statement? How does a historical perspective help us to understand a work like kokoro?
During the pre-modern period, Japanese were forced to sign up unequal treaties with Western powers which granted the Westerners one-sided economical and legal advantages in Japan. In order to regain independence from the Europeans and Americans and establish herself as a respected nation in the world, Meiji Japan was determined to close the gap to the West both economically and militarily. Intensive reforms were carried out in practically all areas. There were always disadvantages associated with the benefits gained. Japan overrated Western culture and such indiscriminate copying of the Westerners was wrong and destructive to the soul of Japan. Many problems emerged in the Japanese society. The intensive civilization influenced not only the economics but also the life of the ordinary Japanese people. During the process of creating a new and modern identity, they lost the traditional and moral values, they have to find a way to go on or escape. Natsume Soseki’s fiction Kokoro seem to illustrate the problems facing the ordinary Japanese people under the rapid civilization process by remaining the main figures nameless throughout the whole story, Sensei, the young boy, K, and Sensei’s wife, referred as ojosan. Therefore, it supported the statement that Natsume Soseki’s fiction can be read as an examination of the anguishes and strains of modern life in Meiji and early Taisho period Japan to the content that the work like Kokoro was used an allegory of the society.
Japan in Meiji period faced a huge reformation, both internal and external with the aim of closing the gap with western nations. According to the view of Natsume Soseki, the Meiji civilization was an unreasonable and imprudent attempt to absorb foreign civilization for Japan. As a result of catching up in a short period, it brought not only the material and technological advancement but also the mental and spiritual struggles and sufferings in the hearts of the Meiji Japanese. To those who have no needs for an inner life, such as noblemen, wealthy man, or commoners, because the civilization stood outside of their lives, they did not have many problems to absorb the western civilization, rather they enjoyed the material benefits, such as new ornaments for their lives, means of acquiring wealth, or improvements in sanitation. It was quite different for the intelligentsia, the producer of the culture comparing to the consumer of it. They undertook the culture pressure caused by the western civilization; they tried to accomplish what the westerners have acquired through a hundred years or more in a really short period, the result of this was not out of expected, they could not justify their existence since the ethics which formed the backbone of their scholarly attainments have collapsed and gone, they have gained the equality with the westerners, but fulfilled with emptiness and pressure within themselves. Kokoro supported this idea to the content that an example of the contrast between a commoner, the father of the young boy, country gentry, and a scholar, whose inner life was greatly influenced by the rapid civilization, Sensei was provided. The father of the young boy, he got the material benefits from the civilization and he had no problems to cope with it. He was secure in his conventionality, he had children, and there was simple warmth in his relationship with his wife. Even though, at the end the old man could not escape the bitterness of human fate, when he was about to die because of the chronic kidney ailment, his own son deserted him. However, he was living a better life by contrast with the Sensei, whose life became all the more poignant. Sensei, he was a figure that represented the scholar of the Meiji period, who was fulfilled with emptiness and had a feeling of lost of identity. He went to university in Tokyo when he was young. He felt guilty because he betrayed his best friend K when they both involved in a love triangle, K committed suicide and he married the woman. He isolated himself from the society with a sense of loneliness, and he did not maintain a good relationship with his wife, his wife served as a constant reminder of his dead friend, as well as for the relationship with the young boy, Sensei maintained a certain distances between himself and the young boy. He was not unkind, but there was a forbidding air about him. Two examples clearly show the different impacts of the Meiji civilization on the commoners and the intelligentsias whose inner life was destroyed by the civilization. A sense of loneliness and emptiness, a feeling of lost identity emerged after during the civilization, because Japan aimed to get the process done as soon as possible. It was the fundamental source of all the problems.
It is a traditional thought Western countries are superior to Japan. By trying to catch up as much as possible, Japan rashly expanded the contacts with the West and compelled to achieve an unnatural development. It was like a frog that tries to swallow a bull that problems would emerge eventually. There was no time to go through the necessary steps of the enlightenment one after another; people who undergo such steps must have a sense of emptiness and correspondingly feelings of discontent and uneasiness in some way. Kokoro provided examples all the way through to support this idea. Firstly, at the beginning of the story, when the boy met Sensei at the beach of Kamakura, Sensei was companied by a Westerner, because of that he got the attention from the young boy who thought Westerners are superior. Secondly, the suicide of K, Sensei’s best friend reinforced the idea of Meiji Japanese undertook a great pressure of Western civilization. K and Sensei both loved the same woman, but Sensei got the woman by betrayed his best friend, it made K feel lost, he lost trust even in his best friend. K committed suicide afterwards and that act sets the cause of loneliness and inactivity of Sensei’s life later. K killed himself to escape the burden of pressure that derived from his desire, it was a contradiction between the ideal and the self, the ideal represents the past time when the traditional moral and spiritual values took place and the self represents the present when the civilization under its way, the traditional values changed by external forces. K tried to create a new identity as well as maintain the emotional idea of the past, the two could not be brought together easily, and he failed eventually. At the last part of the story, Sensei chose to kill himself, as he could not stand the pressure anymore, he realized that in spite of all his efforts to withdraw from the world, he had no way to go except the death. He tired to avoid the shadow of moral darkness by isolating himself from the society and the discomfort of the guilt. He followed similar path with K, tried to make a link between the past and the present, but it was not achievable and he collapsed finally. Sensei’s action towards K regarding the love triangle was against the traditional moral value. But with a historical context of the civilization period, moral values were lost in some way, there was no absolute value, there was no absolute right and wrong. People experienced discontinuity and the dislocation of the culture and moral values due to the rash of the Meiji civilization, which did not have time to allow people to go through step by step.
The idea of young people to grow up to reject the arrangements made by the parents in favor of a new object of respect has become quite common in Japanese society since Meiji era. It was probably a worldwide phenomenon at that time, but because Japan experienced a rapid westernization, the phenomenon has been more exaggerated. As the idea of a modern Japan emerged, the distance between the generations becomes significantly greater whenever a part of a nation’s spiritual heritage is collapsed. This idea is illustrated in Kokoro as well. The father of the young boy experienced a kidney failure, he wanted to secure his son’s future before he died, but the young boy was so reluctant to follow his family’s wishes, because he found his new fond person, Sensei. He asked Sensei to find a position for him in Tokyo even though he knew that Sensei could not really do anything. The other example in the story is K. An adopted child, K has argued with his foster parents over plans for his education, he insisted on what he wanted to do, therefore he moved out and faced economic hardships. K determined to live his own life in spite of the arrangements by both his foster and real parents. It was obvious to see from the two examples in Kokoro, younger generation lost faith in the older generation, they did not totally obey anymore, they had their own idea, but they still desired a new object to respect, a father figure rather than their real father. This is quite different from it was in the past. In traditional Japanese culture, the Confucius idea of father and son, the son should respect and obey the father in all circumstances. But the idea changed dramatically since Japan opened up to the West. The advanced technologies have been brought into Japan as well as the culture and spiritual values of the Westerners.
Japan benefited materially but the downside is it was placed in a disadvantageous position regarding to its traditional culture.
Going through the process of civilization in an intensive period for Japan was not a wise idea. While the good points of the Meiji civilization are evaluated, the disadvantage it brought into Japan should also be taken into account. Japan has the power to compete with the Western nations after the reformation, but at the other side of that, Japan made the sacrifice of losing sufficient amount of culture values that could not be measured. It directly influenced the ordinary Japanese people. There was a trade off in their life, while they were well off materially but experienced discontinuity and disorder in their moral and spiritual values. The examples could be clearly seen in the work Kokoro, the different influences of the civilization on the commoners and the intellectuals, the way people seek to escape and changes in the traditional values. A better understanding of the life under rapid civilization could be gained after reading the work Kokoro. Therefore, to a large extent it supported the statement that Natsume Soseki’s fiction can be read an examination of the anguishes and strains of Modern life in Meiji and early Taisho period Japan. |
发表于 2003-10-28 23:00:00
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发表于 2003-10-28 23:00:00