The Potential of “Kaeuta”: A Study of Ibuse Masuji's “Tanima”

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  • 「替歌」の可能性
  • 「替歌」の可能性 : 井伏鱒二「谷間」論
  • 「 カエウタ 」 ノ カノウセイ : イブセ マスジ 「 タニマ 」 ロン
  • ――井伏鱒二「谷間」論――

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Abstract

<p>Ibuse Masuji's “Tanima (The Valley)”, published in Bungei Toshi in 1929, was highly evaluated for its original sense of “Warai (laughter or humor).” It made his presence felt in the literary world and won him a reputation. The narrative of the work, which repeats the preceding contexts with difference like a “Kaeuta (a variation of a song)”, corresponds to the content of the narration that deals with the transformation of a disturbance in a village into an “Undo Kai (athletic festival).” This essay discusses the textual structure of the work as a parody. The parody points to the possibility of re-territorialization, since it works as a strategy to counter the power of the “names” social conventions endorse within the work's setting in the agricultural villages in the early years of the Showa Era. The work also repeats the conventional expressions typical of various preceding literary works. The part of the work that caricaturizes the proletariat art betrays Ibuse's struggle for new styles of humor. Although the author later disowned the playfulness of the parody in his revision of the text, it is still significant to reexamine the subversive power of the humor that resonates with the gags and jokes of the day.</p>

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