Stumbling past the threshold of languages: Natsume Kinnosuke's contiguous space of language, literature, and theory

I had buried all the books of literature in the depths of my suitcase.That was because I was convinced that tl)'ing to understand what literature is by reading literature is like tiJ'ing to clean blood with blood.I vowed to myself that I would get to the bottom of how literature-in psychological terms-needs to be born in this world, to develop, and to degenerate; I vowed that I would get to the bottom of how literature-in social terms-exists, prospers, and declines. Natsume S6seki 1By the author's own admission, Bungakuron (Theory of Literature, 1907) is meant to theorize literature with the introduction of non-literary theories.One of the few Japanese canonical authors who taught foreign literature at a university in Japan, 2 Natsume Kinnosuke ( 1867 -1916) 3 had reasons to be theoretical.As a teacher of English at what is now the University of Tokyo, he did not exude the perceived natural physical authenticity that his predecessor, Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904), was said to bring to the teaching ofEnglish.4 Neither was he inclined to show off the privilege of having studied English in England, as other "returnees from the West" (yoko gaeri) might have, being skeptical about the command of 1 Natsume Soseki, Bungakuron, vol. 9 of Soseki zenshii (Tokyo: Iwanami shoten, 1966), lO-ll.Translations are mine unless otherwise noted. 2 Among the others are Nagai Kafii ( 1876-1959), who taught French literature at KeiO University after his return from Paris, and Nishiwaki Junzaburo ( 1894-1982), who studied medieval English literature at Oxford and taught at his alma mater KeiO.These writers/teachers form a contrast with contemporary Japanese authors who teach Japanese literature outside Japan, where they are more or less explicitly considered to embody an authentic Japanese essence and thus can claim authority whether or not they so choose.3 I shall refer to the writer in question by his legal name, Natsume Kinnosuke, rather than by his famous penname Soseki in this paper that focuses on his scholarly and educational endeavors, taking a cue from Komori Yoichi, unless his literary output is an issue at stake. 4 "English people do not necessarily know much about English literature" Hiraoka Toshio, ed., Soseki nikki (Tokyo: Iwanami bunko, 1990), 28 (01/12/1901).Hereafter cited as Soseki nikki; references will be made parenthetically in the text."It is not uncommon that ordinary English people misplace accents and mispronounce words (Soseki nikki, 30 (01/18/1902)); "cockney that you know about is very hard to follow.Educated people are not supposed to speak in it.Well-educated people's speech is much more comprehensible."Letter to Kano Kyokichi, Otsuka Yasuji, Kan Torao, and Yamakawa Shinjiro, 02/09/1901; in Soseki shokanshii (Tokyo: Iwanami bunko, 1990), 86.Rather than interpreting those remarks as displaying Natsume's nationalistic pride as a Japanese or his competitiveness with the English, it seems less reductive to highlight the fact that Natsume does not attribute competence to nativity but to class, as defined by educational/cultural refinement as Pierre Bourdieu would understand it.London as seen by Natsume was hybrid, not only by ethnicity but also by class, which did not escape Natsume's attention.However, London appeared to be complacent with its own superiority, as opposed to St. Petersburg, where the city's marginality was ever-confirmed as French was spoken by its aristocracy.

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