Literary characters in early writings of Nagai Kafû (1879-1959): Character models in literary and historical context

该项目的重点是卡夫在他的美国和欧洲之旅(1903-1908年)期间和之后不久所写的作品。它们既包括虚构文本，也包括非虚构文本，如日记、散文和游记。卡夫因此确立了自己作为作家、现代化的有影响力的批评家和欧洲文学--尤其是法国文学--的传播者的地位。文本中的文学人物可以看作是现代人的建构，包括与他者的相遇、批判的自我反思和对现代日本身份的追寻等重要问题。已有的关于卡夫·S作品的研究大多集中在他对日本现代化的批判、传记问题或法国文学的影响上。然而，这些文学人物还没有得到彻底的考察。相反，他们要么被认为是典型的、不复杂的，因此被忽视，而倾向于其他方面，要么被等同于作者，因此根本不被理解为叙事建构的人物。然而，本项目追求的是，卡夫·S的人物形象、他们的叙事结构以及他们与既定的文学模式和当代人性形象的关系，为研究他对现代人的各方面的文学处理提供了重要的基础。该项目旨在从两个方面揭示文本的新层面：第一，确定卡夫所使用的叙事策略和人物塑造的惯例，并揭示他是如何在人物中处理和结合欧洲和日本文本的元素的。第二，揭示卡夫·S人物与相关语境之间的关系：存在于文化知识中的像Fláneur这样的既定文学模式，以及存在于当代日本的人的形象。该项目希望对(1)后古典叙事学意义上的文学人物研究做出贡献，(2)对明治晚期(1868-1912)日本人寻求身份的研究，更准确地说：关于人性形象的形成及其如何在文学中显现。

The project focuses on writings composed by Kafû during and shortly after his journey to America and Europe (1903-1908). They include fiction as well as non-fictional texts, e. g. diaries, essays and travelogues. Kafû thereby established himself as an author, influential critic of modernization and conveyor of European - above all French - literature upon his return to Japan. The literary characters drawn in the texts can be seen as constructions of modern man that comprise important issues as for example the encounter with the other, the critical self-reflection and the search for a modern Japanese identity.The existing research papers on Kafûs writings mostly focus on his critique of Japanese modernization, on biographical issues or the influence of French literature. The literary characters, however, have not been examined thoroughly yet. On the contrary, they have either been perceived as being typified and not complex and were therefore disregarded in favor of other aspects, or they were equated with the author and therefore not apprehended as narratively constructed characters at all. The project, however, pursues the thesis that Kafûs characters, their narrative construction and their relations to established literary models and contemporary images of human nature provide an important basis for the research on his literary treatment of the facets of modern man. The project aims at revealing new layers of the texts in two regards: First, to identify narrative strategies and conventions of characterization Kafû used, and to uncover how he is handling and combining elements from European and Japanese texts in his characters. Second, to disclose the relationships between Kafûs characters and relevant contexts: established literary models like the flâneur, that are present in cultural knowledge, and images of man that are present in contemporary Japan. The project wants to contribute (1) to research on literary characters in the sense of post-classical narratology, and (2) to studies on the Japanese search for identity in the late Meiji-Period (1868-1912), more precisely: on the forming of images of human nature and how they became manifest in literature.