Representations of "Poverty" "Misery" and "Cruelty" in Modern Literature : Research through Media Discourse

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The purpose of this research is to examine the characteristics and significance of representations of"monsters" in Contemporary and Modern Japanese Literature.What is a "monster"? "Monsters" are brought about by systems in which monsters are loathed and feared. Monsters themselves cause an impression of monsters as "hideous", "frightening", "offensive","filthy" and "grotesque", but that impression always must be an impression according to "someone". Social systems which incorporate various systems are established through a unique set of recognition systems, values systems, economic systems, political systems, systems of time and space, physical systems, etc., and through this complex combination of diverse systems the designation of"unrecognizable", "strange" or "different" gives rise to monsters with unusual abilities.Therefore, the study of representations of monsters should reveal the order of acknowledgement to corporeality in the social systems in which monsters emerge. In literature and film where representations of monsters emerge, the order of those social systems is portrayed, and these appearances are also a device used to distort that order in those locales. In other words, while openly revealing the order in which a monster is brought forth, the order which the monster itself brings about leads to a modification of that order. Considering both of these processes through examining the representations of monsters is the purpose of my study of monsters.The period and subject of this research is the representation of "monsters" in literature which is expressed through "poverty", "misery" and "cruelty" ; while specifically looking at the voluminous representations of "monsters", "misery" and "cruelty" found in the vast body of horror literature which has emerged starting from 1895 (Meiji 28) through the following hundred years until around 1995.