On Women's Life Consciousness Versus Patriarchal Culture:Ryunosuke Akutagawa's Discourse on Women
A representative writer active in the Taisho period in Japan,Ryonosuke Akutagawa is extremely prolific over his short career,depicting modem Japanese society in his 148 novels.Akutagawa relies on literature to achieve the social idealism in the form of self-development.By extensively assimilating western modernity,this literary wizard certainly opens more possibilities of diversity in the practice of short story writing,and his accomplishment makes the genre more recognized as an important part of modern Japanese literature.The study of Ryunosuke Akutagawa is an enduring appeal for both Japanese and Chinese scholars.Based on a close analysis of the history research on Akutagawa's literary works,the author has found that two divisions stand out:one is the study of literariness,the other is the study of"shakai seso",which refers to aspects of society in modem Japan depicted through literary texts.However,little attention has ever been paid to the study of Akutagawa's discourse on"women",leaving an undeniable research gap in the division of"shakai seso".Akutagawa's voice on women mirrors a complicated mentality shown in perception of women at a time of social transition,which is why the women characters in his short novels lack clarity and unity.The paper aims to provide a character sketch of the women in Akutagawa'novels,so as to help clarify his cognition of women during the transition from the Meiji to the Taisho era.
discourse on womenpatriarchal culturegametorment for humanityconfinement