Beauty beyond the real: On Sōseki's Kusamakura

Abstract

This thesis aims to reevaluate the place and legacy of Natsume Sōseki’s 1906 novel Kusamakura. We argue that, in addition to challenging the literary norms of its time, Kusamakura serves as a manifesto for Sōseki’s idea of beauty and as a defense of beauty as an autonomous literary and artistic ideal in the age of realism, thus granting it an important place in the history of Japanese literary aestheticism. Through a close analysis of the poetics undergirding the work, the writing technique of shasei (sketching) and the affective dynamics implied in the protagonist’s mindset of hininjō (emotional detachment), we show how and why the novel reforms its basic matter–a romantic situation–into a static image of beauty that transcends, without destroying, the real. We think that Sōseki’s preoccupation with beauty as a literary ideal, as discussed in this thesis, is something that should be taken into account when his legacy is considered, in order to widen our understanding of his thought and imagination, and to possibly point out other avenues of influence in later phases of modern Japaneseliterature.