An Ecocritical Analysis of Modern Japanese Literary History : Becomings of Self, Nature and Literature at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century

Sammanfattning: Situated in environmental history and ecocriticism, this thesis traces the emergence of modern Japanese literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. Using agential realism and its concepts ‘diffraction’ and ‘becoming’, this thesis conducts an anti-essential ecocritical analysis. It aims to overcome recurring dualisms in literary analyses and to trace negotiations of concepts such as ‘nature’ and ‘self’ in modern Japanese literature. The thesis scrutinises ‘diffractions’ between the subject and the object in novels and through very acts of producing novels. These ‘diffractions’ are analysed in relation to ‘becomings’ of the concept ‘nature’ as well as ‘literature’ in the context of Japanese modernisation. Based on diverse struggles in ‘becomings’ in modern literary history, the thesis concludes with questioning the cliché of Japanese culture (the lack of absolute ‘self’ and ‘love of nature’) and also comments on analyses of ‘diffractions’ as a viable method for ecocritical analyses or the ‘ecologisation’ of literary analyses.