2024-03-29T04:51:09Z
https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/oai
oai:tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp:00054164
2023-04-03T05:48:09Z
3:2622:1168:7701
<Article>Recovery versus Reversion : The Implications of Multiple Signifieds in ?oka Sh?hei’s Fires on the Plain
LOFGREN, Erik R.
open access
Much of the scholarship on ?oka Sh?hei?s Fires on the Plain (Nobi, 1952; trans. 1957) is predicated on the assumption that the protagonist, Pfc. Tamura, is insane. This issue crystalizes when, at the end of the novel, Tamura returns to behavior he had previously rejected, now unconcerned about what people might think of him. The language ?oka uses is subject to slippage which, in turn, creates trace structures of related meaning that problematize this assumption of insanity. As a consequence, the reader is forced to consider what meaning the text might have with a sane narrator, and why the author may have chosen to claim insanity for his protagonist. The answers point to both the expectations of readers in the aftermath of Japan?s defeat in World War Two, and a strengthening of the cautionary message implicit in the novel.
筑波大学人文社会科学研究科国際日本研究専攻
Master's and Doctoral Program in International and Advanced Japanese Studies, Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba
2020
eng
departmental bulletin paper
https://doi.org/10.15068/00159585
http://hdl.handle.net/2241/00159585
https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/54164
10.15068/00159585
2186-0564
AA12424473
国際日本研究
Journal of International and Advanced Japanese Studies
12
75
89
https://tsukuba.repo.nii.ac.jp/record/54164/files/JIAJS_12-75.pdf
application/pdf
159.6 kB
2020-02-13