「実業家」と「笑い」･「品性」の関係 ‒夏目漱石の小説を一視点として‒

Abstract

In the Meiji era the aims of young people were initially politicians and became bureaucrats “Career advancement”, but in the Meiji 20s the system was fixed, such things became not realistic . Instead, it was “a businessman” that appeared newly. Young people aiming at becoming able to acquire the social status to be decorated and making “zaibatsu” appear. Here, the image of the businessmen who did not emphasize elegance and characterism so far caused a big change, so that business people will be asked for dignity. And it needs an element of “laugh” such as wit and humor to secure that dignity. You can read about it in literary works as well. For example, when Natsume Soseki’s “I am a cat” is compared with “Higan sugimade”, business people who appear in the former are extremely low in humanity, while the latter is a human who understands wit and humor It is drawn. In this paper we discuss the relationship between this change in businessman image and laughter.