Description
Book SynopsisMichael K. Bourdaghs presents a radical reframing of the works of Natsume Sosekiwidely considered to be Japan's greatest modern novelistas critical and creative responses to the emergence of new forms of property ownership in nineteenth-century Japan.
Trade Review“Michael K. Bourdaghs's
A Fictional Commons provides a strikingly new approach to thinking about the fiction and theories of Natsume Sōseki as well as for thinking how literature as a practice gestures to something beyond the modern regime of private property. Literature, Bourdaghs demonstrates, is one of the sites where we imagine the return in a higher dimension of the commons, the gift, and primitive communism.” -- Karatani Kojin, author of * Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy *
“Both erudite and innovative,
A Fictional Commons brilliantly demonstrates how Natsume Sōseki, through his fiction and criticism, explored literature as a domain for imagining the alternatives to modern private property regime and the related conceptualization of modern personhood. It is a major contribution to Sōseki studies and modern Japanese literary studies. It also joins broader debates over the value of literature in the twenty-first century—how literature may inspire creative modes of sharing that traverse national, regional, and other boundaries dividing our troubled present.” -- Tomiko Yoda, Takashima Professor of Japanese Humanities, Harvard University
"As more and more people question the extremes of capitalism, Bourdaghs’ study of Soseki adds a fascinating lens for further examining other works of literature. . . . In
A Fictional Commons, Bourdaghs reveals Soseki’s sharp mind, ever wrestling with the most important sociological issue of his time. Through this book, Bourdagh also reminds us that the role of literature is to rethink what is possible — and thereby literally rewrite the world." -- Kris Kosaka * Japan Times *
“[Bourdaghs] makes extensive use of Japanese and Western sources, both primary and secondary, drawing seamlessly on work in multiple languages. [
A Fictional Commons] is extensively referenced and comes with an exhaustive list of bibliographic studies . . . which will be of immense help to both students and scholars interested in Sōseki, and in Meiji- and Taisho-era Japanese literature more broadly.” -- Gouranga Charan Pradhan * Japan Review *
“Bourdaghs’s exploration of the question of property for Sōseki is broad, trenchant, and productive, and it drew connections for me that I would not have otherwise imagined.” -- Edward Mack * Journal of Japanese Studies *
Table of ContentsNote on Usage ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction. Owning up to Sōseki 1
1. Fables of Property: Nameless Cats, Trickster Badgers, Stray Sheep 13
2. House under a Shadow: Disowning the Psychology of Possessive Individualism in
The Gate 51
3. Property and Sociological Knowledge: Sōseki and the Gift of Narrative 91
4. The Tragedy of the Market:Younger Brothers, Women, and Colonial Subjects in
Kokoro 121
Conclusion. Who Owns Sōseki? Or, How Not to Belong in World Literature 147
Notes 177
Bibliography 205
Index 219
