On “Sosaku” [“The Creation”] by Akutagawa Ryunosuke

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  • 芥川龍之介の「創作」

Abstract

<p>Akutagawa Ryunosuke's “Sosaku” [“The Creation”] was published in the fourth series of Shinshicho [New Tides of Thought], yet it had never been included in any paperback editions during his lifetime. For this reason, this piece of literary sketch had hardly ever been examined as a main text in the previous study. Compared to “Sosaku,” academics and literary critics placed a higher premium on Akutagawa's same-year debut story “Imogayu” [“Yam Gruel”], which were collected in Shinshōsetsu [The New Novel]. Both works divulges Akutagawa's aptitude to keep abreast of trends in the literary world as well as artistry to develop his own creative approach, albeit in different levels of admiration and acknowledgement.</p><p>In other words, the distinctive attitude of “Sosaku” that the narrator “I” shows by putting forward the term “model issue” and ridiculing naturalism along with humanitarians such as Tolstoians is strongly based on the originality of the “way of seeing things” as demonstrated in a quotation from Jean-Christophe in the end of “Sosaku”.</p><p>With reference to Akutagawa's early works and his writings recalling the same period after he had established himself as a writer, I would like to evaluate the significance of “Sosaku” and its central theme.</p>

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