<Varia>Shimazaki Toson's Shinsei [New Life]: Shaping Self and Other through Letters

Abstract

Shinsei recounts the relationship between a middle-aged widower with four children, Kishimoto Sutekichi, and his young niece who helps with the house chores, Setsuko. After getting Setsuko pregnant, Kishimoto flees to France; there, he spends three years and receives numerous unwanted letters from Setsuko. These letters are inserted in the text of the novel as indirect quotations, and Kishimoto refuses to answer them, instead learning them by heart by reading and rereading them. Setsuko's letter-writing continues after Kishimoto's return to Japan, when their affair is reignited, albeit under slightly different terms. This time, Setsuko's epistles are quoted in full, and Kishimoto writes back, too. As a result, their discourses temporarily engage in true dialogue, and even start sharing a common vocabulary. Nevertheless, soon enough the meaning they attach to words and the contexts they place them in start to differ, until finally they completely contradict each other. This paper analyses the function of letters in Shimazaki Tōson's autobiographical novel, focusing on the way they are used to throw into relief the process through which Setsuko and Kishimoto continuously redefine the borders of Self and Other, via language as a less-than-transparent medium. The discussion will be placed in the context of 20th century Japanese realistic writing, in order to question the notion of shi-shosetsu (I-novel, or personal prose) as a sincere account of the author's reality.