Society of Comparative Culｔural Studies, Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University
Abstract
海老井英次教授退官記念号〈Special Issue〉dedicated to Professor EBII EijiThe narrator in \u22Kofu\u22 (The Miner) by Soseki Natsume maintains that the \u22unity\u22 and \u22coherence\u22 of \u22personality\u22 portrayed in \u22novels\u22 does not exist in reality; moreover, since there is no plot to events in real life, it is impossible to describe them in the form of a novel. He questions the \u22unity\u22 and \u22coherence\u22 or \u22logical form\u22 of languages, questioning personal identity and causality of plot. As a result, he comes to think that novels should depict \u22self\u22 and \u22events\u22 as they are, even though both are incoherent and full of contradictions. However, since narration itself is a linguistic activity, a certain \u22unity\u22 and \u22coherence\u22 or \u22logical form\u22 is inevitable in narrating the incoherence and contradictions. This essay considers whether \u22Kofu\u22 is itself free from such a contradiction or not
