Sokuten kyoshi jako idea nowego narratora

Abstrakt

The phrase sokuten kyoshi (則天去私) is well-known to the Japanese as a neologism invented by Natsume Sōseki (1867–1916) reflecting his spiritual and literary achievements. However, it was and is surrounded by myths about the exceptional and “enlightened” writer, which hinders discovering its full significance for Sōseki. The article takes a closer look at the circumstances of the phrase’s origin and its mythologization, referring to the diary book Bunshō nikki (文章日記), where the phrase was printed for the first and during Sōseki’s lifetime the only time, and to the last three “Thursday meetings” he had with his students. The article also offers an outline of Sōseki’s works, testifying to his sensitivity to the issue of narrative in his novels, and notes that he developed the phrase sokuten kyoshi while writing his last novel Light and Darkness. Analyzing not only Sōseki’s appreciation of Jane Austen’s work as an example that realizes the idea of sokuten kyoshi, but also his references to the concepts of ten (天) and shi (私) during the phrase’s development, one can argue that for Sōseki the phrase was an expression of the idea of a new narrator, one especially invented for Light and Darkness.