LANGUAGE, NARRATIVE STRUCTURE, AND THE 'SHOSETSU' (JAPAN)

In recent years there has been a growing awareness that the terms "novel" and "narrative" may be inappropriate to describe the Japanese shosetsu. Yet there have been few concerted efforts to analyze the differences between modern Japanese fiction and the Western novel. This study has such an objective. Its assumption is that the grammatical structure of a language can profoundly affect the narrative structures that language is disposed toward.;The first part of the research is concerned with isolating and describing those aspects of a language influencing narrative structure, and relates these findings to the structure of Japanese. Some of the grammatical features discussed are the systems of tense and aspect in the Japanese verb, the proximity of direct and indirect forms of discourse, and Japanese syntax.;Focus then shifts to the shosetsu. A number of works are examined according to point of view theory and discourse analysis. This section also considers the semi-autobiographical fiction known as shishosetsu in relation to the shosetsu with the objective of identifying formal distinctions, if any, between the two. Other dimensions investigated are the kinds of discourse characterizing the shosetsu, the importance of the distinction between first- and third-person narration, the role of the narrator, and the time structure of the shosetsu. All the above are discussed with reference to the structures of the Western realistic novel.;The conclusion of this study is that the shosetsu is an affective and lyrical mode, rather than a mimetic one representing objective forms of reality.;In this study, both modern linguistics and Western narrative theory are used to analyze the Japanese language and the shosetsu. It is expected that this method will not only help define the shosetsu, but also the Western concepts of narrative and the novel.