아시아의 망령, 귀환자의 ‘전후’ －아베 고보 「인어전(人魚伝)」을 중심으로

Abstract

This paper examines how Kōbō Abe, the Manchurian (colonial) Japanese writer, expressed this part of his identity in the 1960s, of which he was very much aware. Regarding the analytical method, we explain the creative techniques embodied in Ningyoden(tales of mermaid), published in 1962 by Kōbō Abe, specifically the effect of surrealism as well as the creation of a Kafkaesque fable world. Further, we synthesize the literary values in Ningyoden, which are based on his unique creative writing technique. The mermaid in Ningyoden is not a typical figure who can be imagined through the Märchen perspective. The mermaid, discovered in a sunken ship in the deep sea, is described as if it is a wandering spirit or a ghost, and is of a dark green complexion, save for her white teeth. Despite the mermaid’s eerie appearance, the protagonist is charmed by her heterogeneity, and salvages the mermaid by renovating a bathtub in his house. In addition, the protagonist falls in love with the mermaid as he caresses her in the bathtub every night and licks her eye. The mermaid, who is deformed in a grotesque manner, as well as the image of the man embracing her in the bathtub, are beyond the realm of typical imagination, and strike the reader with a sense of incongruity. Such descriptions, which can be defined as characteristic of appearing in short stories by Kōbō Abe, can be explored through their association with the surrealist painting technique called, “dépaysement.” Dépaysement, effectively captures a mysterious image that appears as two objects by combining them incoherently, thereby usually creating a sense of incongruity by “moving and placing an object to a different location, rather than a location where the object must be placed originally.” Moreover, this work, which rejects a Romanesque conclusion through the main character’s killing of the mermaid, is a realization of Kōbō Abe’s fable world, which is representative of a dark Märchen world. Specifically, his fable world in which skewed modified forms or descriptions of heterogeneous deformations often appear is constructed with the intent “to expose reality.” In addition, in Ningyoden, the identity of the through the symbol of the mermaid, who neither belongs to the land nor to the sea. Kōbō Abe refers to himself as “a wraith of Asia, ” Ningyoden, which adequately reflects the original experience of “the returnee, ” and Ningyoden is a work that allegorically realizes the heterogeneous self-awareness (identity) felt in postwar Japanese society by the returnee who had been dépaysement from Manchuria.