@inproceedings{oai:kokubunken.repo.nii.ac.jp:00003985,
 author = {Origas, Jean-Jacques and ORIGAS, Jean-Jacques},
 book = {国際日本文学研究集会会議録, PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE},
 issue = {10},
 month = {Mar},
 note = {pdf, TSUBOUCHI Shôyô's Shôsetsu shinzui (The Essence of the Novel) was published as a series of nine tiny books from September 1885 to April 1886. For this first attempt of theoretical reflecting-in the Meiji period-about literary principles and techniques was adopted the so-called "watoji-bon" form of publication, light and inexpensive, that had been so often chosen for works-especially for popular literature-in the Edo centuries. Shortly after the first edition, in May of the same year 1886, a second edition appeared, in two volumes. Since, Shôyô's essay has been described, particulary in Japanese histories of literature, as a landmark of great importance for the introduction of western modern realism in Japanese literature.
Several questions nevertheless seem to remain unsolved. Shôyô is known indeed for having focused harsh criticism on Bakin's works and other novels of the Edo period. But was he intent on rejecting the Edo literature as a whole? Was his aim to shift to western standards of literature? How should the concept of "ninja" be interpreted, these "human feelings" which according to Shôyô are the main subject and the guiding principle of creative novels? He almost never uses the word "shajitsu "(realism), which gained success from the begining of the 90's, but on the other hand he very often makes use of the first kanji employed in "shajitsu" to note the verbal process, the act of "utsusu". Does this word here mean, as it often does in contemporary language, "to copy"? Or should it be given a different meaning, more active, more inventive, as an essential concept to evoke new horizons for the writer of novels?
It could be useful to place Shôyô's essay in the context of what might be called a prehistory of Meiji literature, to examine the relations existing between Shôsetsu shinzui and several translations and essays which were the first ones in the field of modern aesthetics: NISHI Amane's Bimyôgakusetsu, KIKUCHI Dairoku's and NAKAE Chômin's translations, the Japanese translation of FENOLLOSA's lecture given in 1882, or some works by TAKADA Hanpô, and to analyse the emerging of words and concepts related to aesthetic reflexion.
It is also necessary to proceed to an accurate analysis of the second part of Shôsetsu shinzui, devoted to more technical aspects of the novel, and especially of chapters such as "Buntairon" (About Style), which seems to have been the oldest core of the whole work. From this point of view, it becomes easier to understand why Shôyô's book became a forerunning model for many young writers who published numerous essays on the art of the novel (and some years later, of poetry), and to evaluate their impact on Meiji literature. Thus are proposed interpretations of Shôyô's evolution of style in his own novels and also, of the first pages of Maihime as a brilliant attempt of Ôgai reflecting about the ways of tradition, in the perspective of his very own time.},
 pages = {234--256},
 publisher = {国文学研究資料館},
 title = {公開講演　「寫す」ということ　―近代文学の成立と小説論―},
 year = {1987},
 yomi = {オリガス, ジャンジャック}
}