Representations of Shame in Modern American Literature and Culture

本研究旨在对1860年至1950年间美国现代文学中所表现的羞耻进行概念化。特别是在日本的学术环境中，自从人类学家露丝·本尼迪克特出版了《菊与剑》（1946）以来，我们似乎已经失去了积极地将羞耻视为美国文化财产的合理依据。然而，一旦仔细研究，美国文学充满了对羞耻的表现。这个项目旨在验证羞耻的框架是典型的美国经历。产生这种强大影响的最关键因素是对美国历史上发生变化的种族关系的认识。通过对文学、历史和理论来源的仔细调查，我探索了美国文化中坚实而肥沃的一层，在这一层中，文学作家试图将羞耻的表现作为自我表现的道德和政治模式的资源。

This study aims at conceptualizing shame as represented in modern American literature written between 1860 and 1950. Particularly in Japanese scholarly circumstances, since the publication of _The Chrysanthemum and Sword_ (1946) by anthropologist Ruth Benedict, we seem to have lost reasonable grounds for positively contemplating shame as a property of American culture. Once carefully investigated, however, American literature is full of representations of shame. This project aims at authenticating a framework of shame as a quintessential American experience. The most crucial element that engenders the powerful affect is the recognition of historically shifted racial relationship in the U.S. By a close investigation of literary, historical and theoretical sources, I have explored a solid and fertile layer of American culture, in which literary authors have attempted to develop representations of shame as resources for an ethical and political mode of self-presentation.