도쿠토미 로카 「흑조(黑潮)」 고찰 ‒시대인식과 사회비판 양상을 중심으로‒

Abstract

This paper examined the ‘Kurosio’ of Roka Tokutomi. I analyzed it from the perspective of social critic novel. Roka has been a journalist for a 14 years at the Min-yusya. He was able to understand overseas situations based on his excellent English ability. He could point out the deviations and contradictions of the Meiji new government with a lot of knowledge and information. This paper reviewed the content of social criticism in terms of western followers, the coalescence of politics and the media economy, and the system of concubinage. And I looked at the outsider hero. The outsider is not burid in the center and can maintain an objective distance. Roka was from the Kuma-moto, not the central force of the revolution. Likewise main character Higashi-Saburo was from Go-syu, not the central force. Roka showed a very progressive feminine perception at that time. He was writing a novel that accuses woman of vulnerable human rights in a male-centered society. The infulential people took for granted the concubine, and the world tolerated it in those days. Roka recognizes that the concubinage is the cause of the tragedy that destroys human dignity and destroys the family. This tendency was attributed to the Christian humanism and Tolstoy’s humanitarianism.