At the Intersection of Script and Literature: Writing as Aesthetic in Modern and Contemporary Japanese-language Literature

Abstract

This dissertation examines the dynamic relationship between written language and literary fiction in modern and contemporary Japanese-language literature. I analyze how script and narration come together to function as a site of expression, and how they connect to questions of visuality, textuality, and materiality. Informed by work from the field of textual humanities, my project brings together new philological approaches to visual aspects of text in literature written in the Japanese script. Because research in English on the visual textuality of Japanese-language literature is scant, my work serves as a fundamental first-step in creating a new area of critical interest by establishing key terms and a general theoretical framework from which to approach the topic. Chapter One establishes the scope of my project and the vocabulary necessary for an analysis of script relative to narrative content; Chapter Two looks at one author’s relationship with written language; and Chapters Three and Four apply the concepts explored in Chapter One to a variety of modern and contemporary literary texts where script plays a central role. Topics discussed include the relationship between calls for postwar democracy and the establishment of a standard script; the use of non-standard (or radical) script practices in literature; the representation of dialect in literary texts; and various script practices meant to reflect internal cognitive developments of characters. This project will be of interest to scholars in the fields of literary studies and criticism, postcolonial theory, the history of writing systems, media studies, and linguistics.