午夜剧场

Students sometimes ask me, "Is literary research useful?" Listening to them, it seems that by "useful," they mean something that can be used for employment or leads to skill development. However, what constitutes being useful varies from person to person and is likely not a universal value.

At such times, Koda Rohan's essay "Kumo no Kage" (Shadows of Clouds, 1907) comes to mind.

Even when the weather is not that bad, there are phenomena where a cloud's shadow passes by and things darken, and then it shines again once the cloud has passed. However, when the place where you are is in shadow, it is difficult to think of it as a temporary cloud shadow, and you end up believing that it has become cloudy everywhere. Using such familiar examples, he discusses how what is considered correct or interesting for people in a certain period or place changes depending on the time and setting—that values change.

My research subject is modern and contemporary Japanese literature, but recently I have been interested in detective fiction, especially "irregular detective fiction" (henkaku tantei shosetsu) which has strong bizarre and fantastic elements. In detective fiction, the standard pattern is that a mystery is solved from a state of chaos following an incident, and order is restored. However, not everything returns to the way it was after the incident. Particularly in irregular detective fiction, heterogeneous elements excluded from daily life are emphasized, mysteries are not solved rationally, and the stories often end by highlighting only the absurdity of everyday life.

For example, Yumeno Kyusaku's "Koori no Hate" (The End of the Ice, 1933), set in Harbin during the Siberian Intervention, is a novel in the form of a will written by "I," who is fleeing after being falsely accused of embezzlement and murder. Simply because he imitated a detective, the Japanese soldier "I" gets caught up in an incident, is pursued by the Japanese Army, the Red Army, and the White Army, and flees Harbin with a White Russian girl. Not only the false accusations, but the Siberian Intervention itself is nothing but an absurd situation for "I." This work confronts us with the fragility of the order that sustains "I's" daily life.

What is considered heterogeneous changes depending on the environment one is placed in at that time. We are all under the "shadows of clouds" of our respective times. That is precisely why the moments when our own values are questioned and common sense is shaken through the words of others are so thrilling. To notice the "shadows of clouds" and become able to see things from a different perspective—I believe one of the significances of literary research lies there.