著者

郭 瀟穎

出版者

Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Global Society, Kyushu University

雑誌

地球社会統合科学 (ISSN:21894043)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.28, no.2, pp.1-15, 2022-01-31

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Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904, Koizumi Yakumo) was a well-known Japanese cultural researcher and folklore scholar in the Meiji era, as well as an outstanding writer. At present, the research on Hearn basically focuses on exploring his views on Japan, ghost stories, and literary theories. He is generally evaluated as a "Western introducer and disseminator of Japanese culture" or a "Western cultural critique who loves Japan". This paper explores Hearn' s view of China focusing on Chinese religious belief by exploring the editorials and his letters to friends, combined with the "Social Evolutionism" which popular in American society at that time. In the end, in the European and the American era, he was a communicator of oriental culture adhering to the values of Western-centrism. Through this research, it is the conclusion that the character image of "Western critics who love Japanese culture" proposed in previous studies should be rethink.