Integration of Peasant and Popular Literature for Women : A Case of Kato Takeo

ノウミン　ブンガク　ト　オンナ　ガ　ヨム　ショウセツ　ツウゾク　ショウセツ　ノ　ハザマ　デ　カトウ　タケオ　ノ　ブンガクロン　ト　ギミン　ショウセツ

キムラ, リョウコ

Kimura, Ryoko

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ キョウイクガクケイ

Department of Education, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

This paper focuses on a popular male writer in modern Japan named KATO Takeo, who came from a poor farm village and authored works on literature for women. This paper aims to analyze his literary theory and thought, which are conflicted between peasant literature and popular literature for women. The former is connected with Kato Takeo’s ideal of literature and social interest, while the latter is related to his economical interest. In modern Japan, both popular (taishu-bungaku or tsuuzoku-shosetsu in Japanese) and serious literature (jun-bungaku in Japanese) have developed through the influence of the mass media. The increase in the number of educated and literate women led to the development of magazines and popular literature aimed at women. However, during both the prewar and postwar periods, popular literature for women, published mainly in women’s magazines or newspapers, was excluded from not only the jun-bungaku category but also taisyu-bungaku category. While resisting this contempt for women’s popular literature, Kato was himself ashamed of being classified in this genre of popular literature, and desired to write literature that idealized the peasant class. Consequently, he tried to create a new style of novels by integrating the styles of peasant and popular literature for women. This paper considers whether his effort was successful in overcoming not only his own internal conflict but also the gender politics of the literary world in modern Japan.