著者

鳥越 輝昭 Torigoe J.I. Teruaki

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文研究 (ISSN:02877074)

巻号頁・発行日

no.166, pp.1-37, 2008

著者

鳥越 輝昭

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文研究 : 神奈川大学人文学会誌 (ISSN:02877074)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.161, pp.37-70, 2007

著者

鳥越 輝昭

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文研究 : 神奈川大学人文学会誌 (ISSN:02877074)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.163, pp.1-30, 2007-12

著者

鳥越 輝昭 Torigoe J. I. Teruaki

出版者

神奈川大学人文学会

雑誌

人文研究 (ISSN:02877074)

巻号頁・発行日

no.176, pp.1-29, 2012

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I have focused on a representation of Venice as a city of death and attempted to show the reasons why this remarkable image emerged. The lagoon extending from the northern edge of Venice is called "laguna morta"(=dead lagoon), in which there is a cemetery island called San Michele, and there can also be found a haunted house named "Casa degli Spiriti" on the northern edge of the city. The zone formed by the "dead" lagoon, the cemetery island, and the northern edge of the city presents an image of a death zone. Interestingly, however, the same zone had been regarded not as a deathly place but rather one of cheerfulness until the end of the eighteenth century. The direct cause for engendering this association of death was the fact that the island of San Michele was changed from a monastic island into a cemetery island at the beginning of the nineteenth century. There were, however, other important causes. The Republic of Venice collapsed in 1797, followed by a long period of political and economic decline. Metaphorically speaking, Venice itself died. The city, lying on the lagoon, also seemed to be soon engulfed by water. Thus it seemed to be in danger of physical death, too. A similar sudden change is noticeable regarding the image of coffins in association with Venetian gondolas. Gondolas were likened to coffins probably for the first time by Goethe just before the extinction of the Republic of Venice, which was already in a state of decline both politically and economically. After Goethe, Venetian gondolas were represented repeatedly as coffins. Interestingly, however, gondolas had been regarded as either beautiful grand vehicles or joyous boats before Goethe. Therefore, the association of gondolas with coffins came not from their physical appearance but from the political, economic, and physical decline of the city.

著者

鳥越 輝昭

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文研究 : 神奈川大学人文学会誌 (ISSN:02877074)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.162, pp.61-85, 2007-09

著者

鳥越 輝昭 Torigoe J.I. Teruaki

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文研究 : 神奈川大学人文学会誌

巻号頁・発行日

vol.161, pp.37-70, 2007-03-31

著者

鳥越 輝昭

出版者

神奈川大学

雑誌

人文学研究所報 (ISSN:02877082)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.33, pp.31-46, 2000-03

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In this essay I have tried to shed some light on the meaning that the city of Venice had for passatisti, i.e. anti-modernists or dropouts of modern society, such as Henry James, Henri de Regnier, Evelyn Waugh and Joseph Brodsky. To clarify the distinctive quality of their response to the city that has retained a great deal of premodernity in the modern world, I have touched upon other types of response by (mostly) earlier writers : criticisms on the city's moral degradation by Montesquieu and Joseph Addison, an amused report on its immorality by Charles de Brosses in the eighteenth century, and, after the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797,nostalgic dirges for its glorious past by Byron and August von Platen, as well as searchs for causes of the city's decline by Comte Daru and John Ruskin. I have also cast a glance, for a better clarification of the passatisti's attitude toward Venice, at similar responses by slightly earlier writers, George Sand and William Dean Howells, and also at the way Kafu Nagai, a Japanese passatista writer, was attracted to the premodern aspect of Kyoto. The following are the points that have been brought out in the essay : (1) Venice has been appreciated for its premodern quality from about the 1830's to the present; (2) such appreciation has been particularly remarkable among passatisti who experienced living in modernized big cities; and (3) in such appreciation, the premodern Venice has often been equated to a paradise on earth. The premodern paradise that the passatisti saw in Venice has probably been contrary to the desire of many Venetians, since efforts for the city's modernization have never been abandoned. In a way, the passatisti saw only what they wanted to see. The need they felt, however, was real, because modernity, which emphasized rationality, progress, clarity, order, and machine mentality, has realized only half of the human potentiality, and because the modern metropolis incorporating modernity has been a place repellent to many sensitive people. The passatisti, who felt alienated in modernized big cities, satisfied their need in the premodernity of Venice.