{"id":19100,"date":"2023-01-31T14:00:44","date_gmt":"2023-01-31T05:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/?p=19100"},"modified":"2023-01-31T14:17:02","modified_gmt":"2023-01-31T05:17:02","slug":"event-report-soseki-as-a-teacher-but-of-what-world-literature-in-the-time-of-covidby-dr-paul-anderer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waseda.jp\/inst\/sgu\/news-en\/2023\/01\/31\/19100\/","title":{"rendered":"Event Report: “Soseki as a Teacher\u2014But of What? (World Literature in the Time of COVID)” by Dr. Paul Anderer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The lecture\u00a0\u201dSoseki as a Teacher\u2014But of What? (World Literature in the Time of COVID)\u201d by Dr. Paul Anderer\u00a0<\/a>from\u00a0Columbia University<\/a> was organized and held by the Global Japanese Studies Model Unit at Waseda University.<\/p>\n

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Professor Anderer\u2019s lecture focused on the role of early 20th-century novelist and critic Natsume S\u014dseki as teacher. S\u014dseki had ample experience as a teacher before joining the Asahi, both at Matsuyama and Kumamoto, and later at Tokyo Imperial University. He also had a long-standing personal interest in Neo-Confucianism (especially the teachings of Zhu xi). Yet, what is the representation we get of teachers in some of his most famous novels such as Sanshir\u014d<\/em>, Botchan<\/em> or Kokoro<\/em>? There are no classrooms, no study of the classics, hardly any lessons, at most there is the one letter that Sensei writes to the narrator as the third and final part of Kokoro.<\/p>\n

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And what, if anything, does Sensei teach the narrator? The story of how he betrayed his friend K and drove him to suicide (described in a memorable scene through that bloody stain on the wall that brings to mind the Gothic echoes of his earlier \u201cTower of London\u201d), Sensei pulls the narrator away from his dying father.<\/p>\n

The opening scene of the novel describes their meeting as occurring outside of the social mass. Edwin McClellan\u2019s translation presents Sensei and his foreign friend \u201cmaking their way through the noisy crowd\u201d to reach \u201ca quieter and deeper part of the sea\u201d where he eventually starts a conversation with the narrator, who has followed him there. Understood within the framework of learning, this \u201cquieter and deeper part of the sea\u201d represents a place that makes us question our everyday perceptions\/knowledge. It hints at the existence of a larger world beyond that in which we are born and live.<\/p>\n

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As Karatani K\u014djin has argued, S\u014dseki\u2019s works are not proper novels in that they do not strive for closure and completeness. They should more properly be called sketches (shasei), for they attempt to reproduce rather the fragmentary and chaotic side of real life. Seen in that way, the ending of Kokoro does not necessarily need to be tragic. After all, there is no explicit depiction of the narrator\u2019s actions or life after reading Sensei\u2019s letter. He may have learned from Sensei\u2019s experience and enriched his own life through that.<\/p>\n

In COVID times, S\u014dseki reminds us that learning is not always limited to formal lessons received in classrooms, but that it also comes out of daring to leave our comfort zones and venturing out into this \u201cquieter and deeper part of the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

This lecture was conducted in person at the Toyama campus. Between undergraduate and graduate students, and general public there were 33 people in attendance.<\/p>\n

Event Overview<\/em><\/h5>\n