著者

Chironov Segey

出版者

国文学研究資料館

雑誌

国際日本文学研究集会会議録 = PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE (ISSN:ISSN0387)

巻号頁・発行日

no.25, pp.49-56, 2002-03-01

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In order to describe the common points between Tarkovsky and Ôe we shall see Ôe's piece of short fiction, Stalker, where he deals directly with Tarkovsky's film by the same name. Stalker being based on an SF novel by Strugatskys, and also taking into account Ôe's own interest in science fiction, it is possible to draw a parallel between. both artists' preoccupation with problems modern science fiction poses, nuclear/environmental crisis of humanity foremost among those.Ôe's attention in Stalker is primarily drawn to the figure of the Stalker, or the Guide, himself. Messiah-viewed by the director, Stalker is related to the New Brother Gi, the Saviour in Ôe's Green Tree Aflame. Both are strongly conscious of the Way=Salvation motif. Now, Tarkovsky's typical Village, sought by Stalker in a postenvironmental- collapse Zone, is the same “place where to return to” or “the base” as the “little valley” of Ôe's works. There is also a parallelism between the wandering and quest by the heroes of Tarkovsky's films ― and “departure”, march in Ôe's fiction. Both artists pay special attention to the motif of mistaken departure/choice of the route, while in the discussions about the Way conducted by the heroes works by the artists of the world are widely referred to. The difficulties of the Way are also used to stress Stalker's and Gi's suffering and weakness which in turn are related to the eventual failure of Messiahs in both cases.In the focus of Ôe's attention in Stalker is also Stalker's mentally handicapped daughter. To both artists such people are “scales” where the struggling forces of Evil and Good are poised. Ôe, who had dealt with the question of whether a mentally disabled child is Christ or Antichrist as early as in his Personal Matter, accepts the apparition of the Stalker's daughter as the Second coming. Later, in Green Tree Aflame, he will revert to the phenomenon of psychic abnormalities in the example of Gi, endowed with healing ability and exercising power of will to prevent an environmental catastrophe.Ôe's interest in Stalker's family in general is connected to his preoccupation with problems of death and generation change. Both he and Tarkovsky are inclined to view these in the light of the cyclical history concept. In Green Tree Aflame Ôe is introducing his son, Hikari, and seeing him off to an independent existence―which can explain the cry of joy ("Rejoice!") the book closes upon. It is in the same way that Ôe approaches Stalker's daughter who, in his opinion, will grow into a still more powerful Guide―thus showing more optimism than Tarkovsky.The selfsame problem both artists deal with here is how to overcome death/crisis of humanity and break through into the future. Both treat this, to a certain extent, along the lines of Christianity, only it would have been impossible for Tarkovsky to follow too close in religion's steps for all the Soviet influence he had to go along with, and neither is Ôe a “believer in one specific god”. Both would rather search for the solution in the depths of the world culture, trying to bring up as much of it as possible. But then another problem arises―the inability of a modern man to fully accept culture he is vested with. Looking at what Ôe suggests in order to cope with that should be a topic for future studies.