Reconsidering Lafcadio Hearn's literary pilgrimage.

摘要

In contrast to his relative obscurity in Britain and America, Lafcadio Hearn remains an important figure of considerable cultural significance in Japan because of his role as a bridge between the cultures. Hearn was willing to come into different cultural worlds without the common Western prejudices of his day. In Japan, Hearn retold Japanese old stories in order to inform Western readers of traditional Japan at the same time he was a dedicated educator introducing English and American literature to Japanese students. His contribution to Japan's development in such fields was great.; What made Hearn as a person behave in such a way? To understand Hearn's life, it is necessary to follow his literary pilgrimage. Hearn was a writer all through his life. In this thesis, I analyzed his works from the viewpoints of "aestheticism" and "recollection." In the first and the second chapters, I followed his life with the keyword of "wanderer," and discussed his attitude toward "writing." In the core of this thesis, I tried to find the causes of negative evaluations of Hearn by mentioning Hearn's anti-Christian attitudes in his writings. In addition, Hearn's understanding of Japanese women in his works was described. In the final chapter, it became clear that Hearn witnessed the profound influence of Chinese on Japanese culture through his works completed in Japan.; Hearn was not only a rootless wanderer but also a forerunner of the writers working in what, to them, would be the "Diaspora." His rootless situation delivered him from an ethnocentric consciousness, and provided him with the eyes open to different cultures though he was physically handicapped by poor eyesight.