Receptions And Variations Of The "Confession" Theme Of Rousseau’s Confessions In Shimazaki Toson’s Shinsei

Shimazaki Toson(1872-1943),formerly known as Shimazaki Haruki,is a writer who occupies an important position in the history of modern Japanese literature.Shinsei,written in 1918,is Toson’s important autobiographical novel.In this novel,Toson confesses his inhumane love for his niece to the world,which is very "penitent".From his self narration and previous research,we can know that the theme of "confession" in Shinsei comes from the influence of Rousseau’s Confessions.This paper will adopt the research methodology of comparative literature,compare the texts of Shinsei and Confessions,in order to expound the former’s acceptance and variation,and further analyzes the reasons for this acceptance and variation,so as to summarize the enlightenment of this influential activity on the literary and cultural exchanges of different countries.The paper is mainly divided into four chapters.The first chapter will analyze the resonance of the two works by Studying the process of Toson’s contact with Rousseau.The second chapter will discuss the variation of Shinsei from three aspects of "confession" consciousness,"confession" writing and "confession" connotation.The third chapter will analyze the reasons of acceptance and variation by combining the two writers’ experience and situation,the background of the times,their respective traditional cultural characters and other cultural influences.And finally,this paper starts from the fact of acceptance and variation of Shinsei to Confessions,and combines the significance of "Shinsei" to the history of Japanese literature,summarizes the enlightenment of this influence activity to people,with a view to promoting cultural exchange and integration between different regions.