나쓰메 소세키의『행인(行人)』론 ―이치로의 정서적 세계와 지적 세계를 중심으로―

Abstract

This paper considers Ichiro’s self-awareness through the intellectual world of Ichiro in “Kojin”. Ichiro is self-centered in the intellectual world he has built, and for Ichiro, knowledge is expressed as his reason for existence (raison d’être) and a space where he can become independent and create his ideal self-image. As a beneficiary of the patriarchal system, he experienced spiritual and material affluence and passive love, as seen in the environment of a house that awes the eldest son of the patriarchy. This makes Ichiro embrace the internalization of oppressed masculineness. Additionally, the intellectual world constructed by Ichiro allows him to realize the limits of his ideological knowledge that is meaningless for relationships with others because of the function of self-righteousness, which is amplified by the excessive desire to control the family and for violence. Finally, Ichiro voluntarily chooses a world of absolute loneliness to live with the absence of ego. In this way, “Kojin” represents a serious voice from the perspective of the direction and utility of knowledge and questions how to recognize and accept others if self-centeredness is based on the intellectual world. This allows Soseki’s voice and request for insight to permeate through.