著者

遠山 清子

雑誌

東京女子大学紀要論集

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, no.1, pp.1-16, 1983-09-25

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In As I Lay Dying and Kyoko no le (Kyoko's Saloon), both William Faulkner and Mishima Yukio were keenly conscious of the ultimate nothingness of human existence. That is to say, humans cannot be conscious of the existence of their own consciousness; and furthermore consciousness can define itself only when it reacts against the outside world with its characteristic modes of reactions. Deprived of these modes, person's existence is scattered in the flow of time without actualizing himself as a character. Both in As I Lay Dying and in Kyoko no le, the characters are presented almost as caricatures in order to emphasize their particular modes of reaction. In As I Lay Dying, the members of the Bundren family actualize each other as they journey to Jefferson to bury their mother Addie. Anse, her husband, is the man of words who does not lift a finger but manipulates others by words to act on his behalf. Cash is a carpenter who speaks very little but makes concrete things. When he has lost his leg and cannot move, he begins to grope for words to express himself. Dahl sees too much. In every event he observes everything without having his own mode of response. In other words he stays paralyzed with his eyes wide open. Only after he begins to exist completely outside of himself, i.e. driven to madness, can he accept himself and the world. Jewel is the man of action. Heplunges right into activity, but with no direction or calculation. Dewey Dell always chooses to stay in the world of senses refusing to recognize facts, and refusing to stabilize her perceptions by putting them into words. Vardman can be sure of his existence only by sharing experiences with others. In Kyoko's Saloon (Kyoko no le), four young men present themselves. Kyoko functions as a mirror by reflecting each figure in listening to them talk. Shunkichi, a boxer, has a determination to fill his life with only actions. When his boxing career ends after a chance fight with a nogooder, he chooses to belong to a radical rightest group in order to keep acti

著者

遠山 清子

出版者

東京女子大学

雑誌

東京女子大学紀要論集 (ISSN:04934350)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, no.1, pp.1-16, 1983-09-25

---

In As I Lay Dying and Kyoko no le (Kyoko's Saloon), both William Faulkner and Mishima Yukio were keenly conscious of the ultimate nothingness of human existence. That is to say, humans cannot be conscious of the existence of their own consciousness; and furthermore consciousness can define itself only when it reacts against the outside world with its characteristic modes of reactions. Deprived of these modes, person's existence is scattered in the flow of time without actualizing himself as a character. Both in As I Lay Dying and in Kyoko no le, the characters are presented almost as caricatures in order to emphasize their particular modes of reaction. In As I Lay Dying, the members of the Bundren family actualize each other as they journey to Jefferson to bury their mother Addie. Anse, her husband, is the man of words who does not lift a finger but manipulates others by words to act on his behalf. Cash is a carpenter who speaks very little but makes concrete things. When he has lost his leg and cannot move, he begins to grope for words to express himself. Dahl sees too much. In every event he observes everything without having his own mode of response. In other words he stays paralyzed with his eyes wide open. Only after he begins to exist completely outside of himself, i.e. driven to madness, can he accept himself and the world. Jewel is the man of action. Heplunges right into activity, but with no direction or calculation. Dewey Dell always chooses to stay in the world of senses refusing to recognize facts, and refusing to stabilize her perceptions by putting them into words. Vardman can be sure of his existence only by sharing experiences with others. In Kyoko's Saloon (Kyoko no le), four young men present themselves. Kyoko functions as a mirror by reflecting each figure in listening to them talk. Shunkichi, a boxer, has a determination to fill his life with only actions. When his boxing career ends after a chance fight with a nogooder, he chooses to belong to a radical rightest group in order to keep acting. Natsuo is a born artist who happily stabilizes a world of motion while he paints. Osamu, an actor, not sure if he really exists, can find confirmation of his existence only in pain and blood, i.e. death. Seiichiro is determined to counterbalance his inner desolation with his outer existence as a future executive of a big corporation. While Faulkner makes the basically Christian concept of 'words incarnated' as an axis of As I Lay Dying, Mishima bases Kyoko no le on the expectation of the total annilation of the world. Mishima, much like Dahl in As I Lay Dying, tried to give himself an identity by totally negating every positive human value and choosing to die a sensational death. Holding to the same recognition of the fundamental nothingness of human existence, Mishima ends as "a knight of the negative" while Faulkner unveils himself a man of the affirmative.