Author:
SUN Luodan, Professor, School of Chinese Language and Literature, Northeast Normal University.
Abstract:
Tokutomi Roka's novel Hototogisu garnered attention well beyond the literary sphere during the Meiji era, with its reading and dissemination constantly caught in the tension between private emotional experience and the production of public meaning. Through a combination of close reading, study of publishing history, and cross-linguistic communication studies, this paper argues that Hototogisu does not continue the narrative tradition prevalent in Japan, where the emotional plot is concluded with a love- suicide; rather, under the multiple pressures of illness, war, and the family system, its response is to defer, interpret, and reposition individual suffering. By introducing a discourse of Christian ethics centered on the protagonist Ogawa Kyoko, the novel transforms "endurance" from a consequence of systemic oppression into a comprehensible ethical stance, thereby altering the mode of resolution for love narratives. Building on this foundation, the paper further investigates the "behind-the-scenes promoters" and the mechanisms of meaning reconstruction involved in the 1904 English translation of the story. It argues that it was precisely due to the commensurability of its emotional structure and ethical language that Hototogisu could gain recognition and acceptance within the English speaking world, entering the cross-cultural communication network as a realist text depicting "modern Japan".
Keywords:
Hototogisu , Tokutomi Roka, Christian ethics, English translation
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