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阅读夏目漱石 Natsume Sōseki在小说之家的作品!!! |
夏目漱石1867年1月5日生于江户(今东京)。他的家庭在明治维新前是江户世袭的“名主”(相当于街道上里长之类的小吏),维新后,家道中落。在中学时酷爱汉诗汉文，后在家庭的影响下改学英语。1893年毕业于东京帝国大学英文科。学生时期，与近代和歌、俳句的革新者正冈子规结为好友，从事俳句写作。青年时期接受了汉文学所蕴含的道德观念、英国文学中的启蒙主义思想以及俳谐文学中的文人趣味和美学观点的影响。1895年，放弃东京高师英语教师的教职，先后去四国松山市和九州熊本市第五高等学校任教。1900年以官费留学英国三年，观察到西方社会的种种弊病，特别是资本主义社会的“金钱万能”，使他感到十分厌恶。 1903年回到日本,在东京帝国大学任教,并为高滨虚子主编的杂志《杜宇》写俳句。当时，“杜宇派”除致力于俳句创作外,还在提倡“写生文”,经常发表俳文。
1905年写了《我是猫》的第一章,作为一篇俳文，在《杜宇》上发表，获得赞赏，后在高滨等人的鼓励下，写成长篇小说。他以敏锐的观察力，以教师苦沙弥家一只“猫”的口吻，批判了走上资本主义道路的明治时代黑暗的现实，特别是对他一向所厌恶的资本家的专横跋扈与“金钱万能”的世态，极尽嬉笑怒骂之能事。这部作品还用漫画式的夸张手法，塑造了一群自命清高、愤世嫉俗的知识分子的形象；对他们玩世不恭的态度和行动无力的弱点,进行了调侃和讪笑。作品巧妙地使用了雅语、俗语、汉语。
1906年作者又在《杜宇》上发表中篇小说《哥儿》，这也是一部带有幽默讽刺特色的作品。它用第一人称的手法，塑造了一个憨直、朴实、头脑有些简单的青年的形象，并表现他的正义感和反抗性，饱含着对社会势力的批判精神。作品语言平易，吸取了通俗文学“落语”（类似“相声”的一种曲艺）的有益成分，滑稽而有风趣。这部作品长期为广大读者所喜爱。同年发表另一部中篇小说《旅宿》。
1907年《朝日新闻》社延请他为特聘作家，他便放弃了大学教授的职位，成为职业作家。直到去世的大约10年的时间里，先后写了10多部长篇小说，均在《朝日新闻》上连载。《三四郎》、《其后》、《门》是他中期创作的三部曲。《三四郎》(1908)近似于“教养小说”，写农村青年三四郎在东京大学求学的生活和他对女性的爱慕，表现一个农村青年的成长过程。《其后》（1909）描写一个大学毕业生井代助，将所爱的女郎三千代让给朋友平冈，自以为这是“英雄的”牺牲精神。几年后，平冈与三千代从外地回到东京，代助逐渐认识到自己以往的行为是虚伪的，特别是了解到平冈已变成一个庸俗不堪的人和三千代的婚后生活并不幸福，便向三千代表白了爱情，并和她重新结合。代助认为这样做是回复到“自然”(真实)，但结果却不能不与世俗道德发生正面冲突。作品虽然是描写爱情，但主题是在说明日本近代社会仍受着强大的封建力量的束缚。《门》(1910)实际上是《其后》的续篇，描写主人公宗助和阿米这对小资产阶级出身的夫妇的暗淡的生活，以深刻的心理描写反映了冲破封建束缚后小资产阶级知识分子精神上遭受的压抑和痛苦。这三部作品都以现实主义的创作方法，揭示了日本近代社会存在的种种问题，被认为是日本近代文学中具有深刻思想性的作品。晚期写了《过了春分时节》(1912)、《行人》(1912～1923)、《心》(1914)、《道草》(1915)等长篇小说。《明暗》(1916)是他生前未完成的作品。这些作品大多以细腻的心理分析，描写知识分子精神上的孤独和利己主义的丑恶。
夏目漱石一生著有两部文论、大量俳句、几百首汉诗,若干随笔和书信，但在文学上的最大贡献是以他十几部长篇小说和大批短篇小说竖起批判现实主义文学的丰碑，给后来的作家以深刻的启迪。夏目一生坚持对明治社会的批判态度,以他的具有鲜明个性的、丰富多采的艺术才能,在日本近代文学史上占有重要的地位。1916年12月9日逝世。
Born as Natsume Kinnosuke in the town of Babashita in the Edo region of Ushigome (present Kikui, Shinjuku), Sōseki began his life as an unwanted child, born to his mother late in her life. His parents foisted him off on a former household servant (Shiobara Masanosuke) and his wife, by whom he was brought up until the age of nine. He returned to his household and was welcomed by his mother although regarded as a nuisance by his father. His mother died when he was fourteen, and his two eldest brothers died in 1887, intensifying his sense of insecurity.[citation needed]
Sōseki attended the First Tokyo Middle School (now Hibiya High School), where he became enamored with Chinese literature, and fancied that he might someday become a writer. However, his family disapproved strongly of this course of action, and when Sōseki entered the Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo) in September 1884, it was with the intention of becoming an architect. He began studying English at that time, feeling that it might prove useful to him in his future career.[citation needed]
In 1887, Sōseki met Masaoka Shiki, a friend who would give him encouragement on the path to becoming a writer, which would ultimately be his career. Shiki tutored him in the art of composing haiku. From this point on, Sōseki began signing his poems with the name Sōseki, which is a Chinese idiom meaning "stubborn". In 1890, Sōseki entered the English Literature department, and quickly became a master of the English language. Sōseki graduated in 1893, and enrolled for some time as a graduate student and part-time teacher at the Tokyo Normal School.[citation needed]
Sōseki began teaching at Matsuyama Middle School in Shikoku, in 1895, which is the setting of his novel Botchan. Along with fulfilling his teaching duties, Sōseki published haiku and Chinese poetry in a number of newspapers and periodicals. He resigned his post, in 1896, and began teaching at the Fifth High School in Kumamoto. On June 10 of that year, he married Nakane Kyoko.[citation needed]
Natsume Soseki's lodgings in Clapham, South London
In the United Kingdom, 1901-1903
In 1900, the Japanese government sent Sōseki to study in Great Britain as "Japan's first Japanese English literary scholar". He visited Cambridge and stayed a night there, but gave up the idea of studying at the university because he could not afford it on his government scholarship. He had a miserable time of it in London, spending most of his days indoors buried in books, and his friends feared that he might be losing his mind. He also visited Pitlochry in Scotland.
He lived in four different lodgings, only the last of which, lodging with Priscilla and her sister Elizabeth Leale in Clapham (see the photograph), proved satisfactory. Five years later, in his preface to Bungakuron (The Criticism of Literature), he wrote about the period:
The two years I spent in London were the most unpleasant years in my life. Among English gentlemen I lived in misery, like a poor dog that had strayed among a pack of wolves.[citation needed]
He got along well with the Leale sisters, who shared his love of literature (notably Shakespeare and Milton) and spoke fluent French, much to his admiration. The Leales were a Channel Island family, and Priscilla had been born in France. The sisters worried about Sōseki's incipient paranoia and successfully urged him to get out more and take up cycling.
Despite his poverty, loneliness, and mental problems, he solidified his knowledge of English literature during this period and returned to Japan in 1903.
After his return to the Empire of Japan, he replaced Koizumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) at the First Higher School, and subsequently became a professor of English literature at Tokyo Imperial University, where he taught literary theory and literary criticism.[citation needed]
Literary career
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Sōseki's literary career began in 1903, when he began to contribute haiku, renku (haiku-style linked verse), haitaishi (linked verse on a set theme) and literary sketches to literary magazines, such as the prominent Hototogisu, edited by his former mentor Masaoka Shiki, and later by Takahama Kyoshi. However, it was the public success of his short story Wagahai wa neko de aru ("I Am a Cat") in 1905 that won him wide public admiration as well as critical acclaim.[citation needed]
He followed on this success with short stories, such as Rondon tō ("Tower of London") in 1905 and the novels Botchan ("Little Master"), and Kusamakura ("Grass Pillow") in 1906, which established his reputation, and which enabled him to leave his post at the university for a position with Asahi Shimbun in 1907, and to begin writing full-time. Much of his work deals with the relation between Japanese culture and Western culture. Especially his early works are influenced by his studies in London; his novel Kairo-kō was the earliest and only major prose treatment of the Arthurian legend in Japanese. He began writing one novel a year until his death from a stomach ulcer in 1916.
Obverse of a 1984 series 1000 Japanese yen banknote
Major themes in Sōseki's works include ordinary people fighting against economic hardship, the conflict between duty and desire (a traditional Japanese theme; see giri), loyalty and group mentality versus freedom and individuality, personal isolation and estrangement, the rapid industrialization of Japan and its social consequences, contempt of Japan's aping of Western culture, and a pessimistic view of human nature. Sōseki took a strong interest in the writers of the Shirakaba (White Birch) literary group. In his final years, authors such as Ryūnosuke Akutagawa and Kume Masao became close followers of his literary style.[citation needed]
Major works
Sōseki's major works include:
Year Japanese title English title Comments
1905 吾輩は猫である Wagahai wa Neko dearu I Am a Cat
倫敦塔 Rondon Tō The Tower of London
薤露行 Kairo-kō Kairo-kō
1906 坊っちゃん Botchan Botchan
草枕 Kusamakura The Three-Cornered World
(lit. The Grass Pillow) latest translation uses Japanese title
趣味の遺伝 Shumi no Iden The Heredity of Taste
二百十日 Nihyaku-tōka The 210th Day
1907 虞美人草 Gubijinsō The Poppy
1908 坑夫 Kōfu The Miner
夢十夜 Yume Jū-ya Ten Nights of Dreams
三四郎 Sanshirō Sanshiro
1909 それから Sorekara And Then, a novel
1910 門 Mon The Gate
思ひ出す事など Omoidasu Koto nado Spring Miscellany
1912 彼岸過迄 Higan Sugi Made To the Spring Equinox and Beyond
行人 Kōjin The Wayfarer
1914 こころ Kokoro Kokoro
私の個人主義 Watakushi no Kojin Shugi My Individualism A famous speech
1915 道草 Michi Kusa Grass on the Wayside
硝子戸の中 Garasu Do no Uchi Inside My Glass Doors English translation, 2002
1916 明暗 Mei An Light and Darkness, a novel Unfinished