Developing the female self: Same-sex love, love marriage and maternal love in modern Japanese literature, 1910--1939

With the publication of Seio (Bluestocking, 1911--16) and the writings of Hiratsuka Raicho (1886--1971), feminist discourse became an important part of Japan's prewar landscape. Not only did it establish and shape concepts that defined female identity, such as virginity and motherhood, it also articulated a new notion---that love was a vital catalyst for female growth, development and self-discovery. This idea engendered a new understanding of female selfhood (jiga) as a process, and contributed to the further conceptualization of different forms of love.; In this dissertation, I examine three prewar novels depicting the course of female bildung, that is, a girl's physical and mental growth and her attainment of a "true" or "ideal" identity. Particularly, I explore the way these narratives engage with feminist discourse, as well as a number of contemporary sociohistorical and literary discourses, adopting and rewriting this notion of development and self-completion through love.; Chapter One looks at Yaneura no nishojo (Two Virgins in the Attic, 1920) by Yoshiya Nobuko. Written in the late 1910s, the novel simultaneously incorporates and critiques ideas presented in Bluestocking by illustrating a positive course of female self-discovery through same-sex love (doseiai).; Chapter Two offers a new reading of Tanizaki Jun'ichiro's Chijin no ai (A Fool's Love, 1924--5) as a work that parodies concepts surrounding marital love and female development. I interpret this text against the backdrop of the 1920s when love marriage (ren'ai kekkon) was popularized as an ideal through love treatises and "love incidents" directly influenced by feminist discourse.; In Chapter Three, I investigate Okamoto Kanoko's Shojo ruten (Wheel of Life, 1939). During the 1930s, feminist and nationalist agendas merged in promoting motherhood as the definitive female identity. This novel adapts these discourses to create a new "mythic" understanding of maternal love (boseiai) as the goal for female development.; By interpreting prewar constructions of girlhood and womanhood in both literature and society, this dissertation challenges the boundaries traditionally used to demarcate literature, history and culture. In reevaluating the larger cultural significance of feminist discourse, this study presents new avenues for exploring Japan's modernity.