The Contradictions in Shinpei Kusano’s View of “Shinbungaku” in The Context of Japanese Imperialism in Nanjing ：Focused on The Local Japanese Journal <i>Nightingale</i>

ZHOU, Xiyu

doi:2021.12.1.121

The Journal of Japanese Language Literature Studies > Volume 12(1); 2021 > Article

Article

Border Crossings: The Journal of Japanese-Language Literature Studies 2021;12(1): 121-137.
doi: https://doi.org/10.22628/bcjjl.2021.12.1.121

The Contradictions in Shinpei Kusano’s View of “Shinbungaku” in The Context of Japanese Imperialism in Nanjing ：Focused on The Local Japanese Journal Nightingale

Xiyu ZHOU

PhD Student, Chiba University Graduate School of Humanities and Studies on Public Affairs

日本占領下南京における｢新文学｣の在り方 ―― 現地日本語雑誌『黄鳥』をめぐって

周希瑜

千葉大学大学院人文公共学府博士後期課程。日本近代文学、日中比較文学。

Correspondence Xiyu ZHOU ,Email: syukiyu@yahoo.co.jp

Published online: 30 June 2021.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

ABSTRACT

In light of Shinpei Kusano’s perspective on the promotion of Shinbungaku in the Japanese newspaper Tairiku Shinpo, this paper discusses three contradictions displayed by the Japanese journal Nightingale during the same period. Tairiku Shinpo propagated Kusano’s ideals of Shinbungaku, while the texts in Nightingale constituted the execution of his ideas in Occupied Nanjing. Firstly, Kusano expected differences in ideals to promote literary collaboration with Chinese intellectuals in occupied Nanjing. However, through an analysis of reviews of Chinese writers’ works by the editors of Nightingale, a discrepancy over the understanding of Shinbungaku was found. Secondly, Kusano paid close attention to the genre of the novel, but there was a contradiction between his ideas on pure literature, which he believed should focus on daily life in Japanese occupied Nanjing, and on propaganda literature, which lied about the Japanese ideology of Toa ShinChitsujo (New Order in East Asia). Lastly, Kusano insisted on the need for the spirit of Douujinshi to improve the Japanese literary environment for his contemporaries in occupied Nanjing, but meanwhile he also attempted to impose this spirit on local Chinese intellectuals. Due to the above three contradictions, the Shinbungaku movement ended with no practical result, but these contradictions clarify Kusano’s struggle to present his ideal of literature under the auspices of an imperialist ideology. Consequently, the output of Nightingale should not be overlooked.

Keywords: Shinpei Kusano, Nightingale, Occupied Nanjing, Pure Literature, Novel

キ―ワ―ド: 草野心平, 『黄鳥』, 占領下南京, 純文学, 小説