著者

宮崎 隆義

出版者

徳島大学

雑誌

言語文化研究 (ISSN:13405632)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.2, pp.167-179, 1995-02-20

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It is well known that 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' by Thomas Hardy furnished Tanizaki Jun'ichiro with some influence for writing Shunkinsho. In this essay, the conceivable effects, positive and negative, upon Shunkinsho by 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' are investigated. Hardy wrote in his diary that 'love lives on propinquity, but dies of contact.' In this vein, Shunkin and Sasuke seem to keep their love alive in a closed, mental world of their own. The two lovers establish 'propinquity' by means of the difference in social rank and physical blindness. In a seemingly peculiar relationship they hanker for an unchanging love yet avoid the permanence and stability of marriage. In 'Barbara of the House of Grebe' marriage causes emotional changes in Barbara towards Edmond Willowes, her first husband, and Lord Uplandtowers, her second husband. Barbara, by 'watching' Edmond's burnt face, changes her feelings towards him, causing her to shun him, 'averting her face,' 'shutting her eyes' and 'covering her eyes.' Hardy's literary device of Barbara's aversion of the gaze seems to be an influence on Tanizaki's motif of blindness in Shunkinsho. Sasuke becomes blind by his own hand, the reason for his act being to avoid watching Shunkin's scalded face and his changing feelings towards her. Unlike Barbara, Sasuke becomes able to preserve Shunkin's beauty in his own memory for eternity by his self-mutilation, just as the blind Shunkin holds his physical entity in her own mind through the senses of touch and hearing.