著者

蒲生 芳郎

出版者

日本文学協会

雑誌

日本文学 (ISSN:03869903)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.20, no.10, pp.19-27, 1971

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Though Ogai's Vita Sexualis has apparently the theme of a frank confession of his own life from the viewpoint of carnal desire and the methodology of 'naturalism,' this work was, in fact, written to attempt to criticize and get over 'naturalism' by depicting a man trying to control carnal desire aginst a man controlled by it. But Ogai cannot easily be said to have succeeded in his attempt. The chief reasons of his failure seem to me sa following ; (1) he insisted too strongly upon the reason of controlling carnal desire, and (2) as the result, he completely forgot to write and express the conflicts between reason and carnal desire and the process of getting over them. Therefore, Viita Sexualis, it seems to me, remains as a story of a mere "anti-naturalism" literature and cannot be ranked as that over 'naturalism.' About eight months after Vita Sexualis, Ogai worked over his plan again and began to write long story, Seinen (A Young Man). He again took up the problem of carnal desire in this, developing the plot based upon the carnal life of its hero, Jun'ichi KOIZUMI. Comparing these two stories of the seemingly same theme, I found the mehtods contrasting in a striking way. Shizuka KANAI, a hero of Vita Sexualis, acknowledges himself to be not so handsome and attractive, and defines himself innately incapable of gettinga success in love-affairs. Accordingly there happens nothing that bothers him so much. On the contrary, Jun'ichi KOIZUMI, a hero of Seinen, is so rich and free as well as so handsome that he is always surrounded with many charming and beautiful girls and ladies. Among them he picks up Mrs. SAKAI and has a sexual connection with her. But Jun'ichi KOIZUMI cannot be addicted to the pleasures from carnal desire only as Shizuka KANAI did, but he is a man trying to lead a life for something higer than mere carnal desire. Therefore, he has to struggle against his onw sexual impetus which disturbs his higher object of life as well as his actual life. Here begins his inner conflict. Through this conflict he tries to grope for the way to get over an instinctive life controlled by carnal disere. Ogai wrote the whole aspects of a human life who tries to live manging somehow to get over his own sexual impetus. It is this conflict and the process of groping that are lacking in Vita Sexualis. The progress as a writer and the development of Ogai's literary consciousness can be seen in his succession from Vita Sexualis to Seinen. Ogai's intention is succeeded to Seinen, and he again tried to get over 'naturalism' Seinen. My further investigation into Ogai's second trial in Seinen is to be continued in my next Paper.