Miyazawa Kenji’s Anthropomorphism and Landscapes

Poet and author Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933) is widely known for his richly imaginative fictionalization of his native Iwate in northeastern Japan, in which Gary Snyder found much inspiration for his nature writings. Reflecting his strong interest in wide-ranging fields of natural science such as zoology, botany, geology, and meteorology, Miyazawa's works prominently feature various non-human actors-snow storms, winds, volcanic rocks, forests, birch trees, frogs, deer, birds, wildcats, bears, and even elephants-in largely rural settings. Some other works have no human characters at all. Miyazawa's determined employment of a variety of non-human actors generates agential landscapes that actively interact with characters. Considering the non-human protagonists in his stories as expressions of landscape in a broad sense, this paper takes a close look at Miyazawa's frequent use of anthropomorphism and asks how it enables-and limits-his creation of agential landscapes. In order to examine Miyazawa's anthropomorphized landscape outside the tradition of nature writing studies, the paper will focus on geopolitical contextualization. For instance, recent studies indicate that Miyazawa was keenly aware of his marginalized existence away from the lit- erary circles in 1920s Tokyo. What did it mean to create agential landscapes which were still confined in marginalized space? And how does such marginality of his agential landscapes relate to the peripheral nature of Iwate within the Japanese empire of the 1920s? The dynamics between agency and marginality will also be examined for its implications on the ecocentric impulse in Miyazawa's writings.

關鍵字

Anthropomorphism ； Ecocentrism ； marginality ； agential landscapes ； Miyazawa Kenji

並列摘要

著名的日本詩人兼作家宮澤賢治（1896-1933）以極豐富的1想像力，通過文學描述展現了他在日本東北部家鄉岩手的自然環境。當地也是美國詩人史耐德自然寫作之靈感之泉。他對自然科學懷有廣泛的興趣，其中包括諸如動物學、植物學、地質學以及氣象學等，這類興趣促使他在文學創作時注重凸顯出沒於鄉間的非人類角色—暴風雪、火山熔岩、森林、白樺樹、蛙類、鹿群、鳥類、山貓、黑熊，甚至還有大象。有些作品中乾脆就沒有人類出現。宮澤堅定地起用各色各樣的非人類角色，來勾勒出能動性的山水環境，讓它們在其中和人的角色主動交往互動。本文從廣義上將宮澤故事中非人類角色視為山水環境的各種表達形式，細緻地審視其作品中頻繁使用的擬人手法；並對他具有能動性的自然環境作探究。本文側重頗具政治性的地理為分析框架，以便從一個不同於常規自然寫作研究的角度來檢驗這類擬人性自然。譬如說，新進有研究表示：宮澤對其疏離1920年代東京的文學圈，而使自己成為邊緣者有很清醒的意識。那麼，創作出尚受邊緣化局限的能動性自然意味著什麼呢？而他所表述的具能動性自然的邊緣性，又和處於1920年代的大日本帝國邊緣的岩手有何相關之處？本文同時探討能動性與邊緣性之間的互動，以及其蘊含的對宮澤寫作中以生態中心的創作具有的意義。