Inagaki Taruho's invisible “model”: The trinity of original-distance-reproduction

Futoshi Ikeda, Purdue University

Abstract

As an isolated and mysterious Great Cham, Inagaki Taruho (1900-1977) holds a singular position in the history of Japanese modern literature. It has been taken for granted that Taruho placed the aesthetic value of artifacts such as models or imitations above that of natural things. At least, there are no critics who have seen the bias itself as a problem. "His tendency" is conventionally attributed to the influence of the modernism movements of the early twentieth century, especially of Italian Futurism which was one of the most radical anti-nature ideas and the strongest advocate of modern technology. Shigeta (1997) anatomized the relationship between Taruho and Italian Futurism and propounded her Platonized theory which she believed distinguishes Taruho's thinking from Italian Futurism and successfully clarifies his singular fondness for artificiality. However, quite a few parts found in Taruho's works show that he valued not only the model or imitation but also in the original thing. The purpose of this study is to resolve the discrepancy by offering a new and different logical framework. First, we focus attention on the similarities between Taruho's fantasy fictions and magic rituals introduced in J. G. Frazer's The Golden Bough. Frazer (1922) generalized the belief underlying those miscellaneous magic rituals in common and established his theory of “Sympathetic Magic”. After our critical reinterpretation of his theory, partially in the eyes of semiology, it is applied to the analyses of Taruho's works. The comparison above and other collateral discussions reveal that Taruho's style is more akin to the ancient or primitive magic than to the modernism movements such as Italian Futurism. Second, we closely examine Taruho's short novel, Kōbaku kibun (A Strange Story in the Yellow Desert) to illustrate the essential distinction between his thought and Italian Futurism, especially in the philosophy about nature and modern technology. Those discussions converge with the clarification of Taruho's singular view about reproducibility, also referring to The Work of Art in the Age of Its Technological Reproducibility. (W. Benjamin, 1936/2008) Based on the conclusions of those two logical developments above, this thesis tries to formulate Taruho's perspective underlying his fondness for reproduction.

Degree

M.A.

Advisors

Sekine, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Comparative literature|Modern literature|Asian literature

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