Comparative Approaches to American Literature

在这个研究项目中，我建议通过比较的方法来研究美国文学，考虑到现代文学批评的历史背景和理论发展。在项目的第一年，2004年，我专注于赫尔曼梅尔维尔和他的作品的日本批评史，并勾勒出二战前后日本浪漫主义文学话语与反浪漫主义文学话语冲突的过程。梅尔维尔作品的浪漫主义倾向。该项目第二年的上半年致力于分析日本20世纪70年代和80年代的历史背景，以村上春树对菲茨杰拉德作品的盗用为美日文化互动的最具代表性的案例之一。笔者的考察证明，村上春树对菲茨杰拉德作品的借用是作者的自觉策略，他深刻地意识到了文学表征所固有的理论问题和时代的理论背景。在第二年的下半年，我研究了另一个课题，分析威廉·福克纳在日本的批评接受情况。最后一个研究项目证明了威廉·福克纳对日本文学及其语境的影响的重要性，并对二战后日本的美国研究产生了一些重要的新认识，对以后的研究也有一定的贡献。

In this study project, I proposed to study American literature through comparative approaches, taking into consideration historical contexts and theoretical developments in modern literary criticism. In the first year of the project, in 2004, I focused on Herman Melville and Japanese critical history of his works, and delineated the process in which Japanese pre-and post-World War II romantic literary discourses conflicted with the anti-romantic tendencies of Melville's works.The first half of the second year of the project was dedicated to the analysis of the historical contexts of the Japanese 1970s and 80s, taking the appropriation of F.Scott Fitzgerald's works by Haruki Murakami as one of the most representative cases of cultural interactions between the U.S. and Japan. My investigation proved that Haruki Murakami's appropriation of Fitzgerald's works were conscious strategies of the writer, who was deeply aware of the theoretical problems inherent in the literary representations and the theoretical background of the age. In the latter half of the second year, I worked on another topic, the analysis of the critical reception of William Faulkner in Japan. This last study project proved the significance of William Faulkner's influence on Japanese literature and its context.The study project lead to several important new recognitions about American studies in Japan after World War II, and would contribute to later studies.