美しい葛藤 － 「雨の木」『「雨の木」を聞く女たち』から『大江健三郎自選短編』まで

Abstract

The five short stories of the “Rain Tree” series were first created from 1980 to 1982, and later incorporated into a collection of short stories entitled, The Women Listening to the “Rain Tree” with a common theme of the “rain tree,” which was constantly rewritten, enriched and improved after Kenzaburō Ōe as an incomplete literary image in the following works: New Man Wake Up (1983); How to Kill a Tree (1984); The Universal “Rain Tree” (1991); the trilogy The Flaming Green Trees; and more. The images of the “rain tree” were entangled with the writer’s thoughts, suggesting the multiple dualistic images about “dim” and “healing”; “grief” and “salvation”; “life” and “death”; “desperation” and “hope” and the like. Therefore, it can be said that the “rain tree” is not a fixed metaphor, but a varied image in different narrations. This paper will analyze the different images of the “rain tree” in these works one by one and study the forms and features of the varied metaphors of the “rain tree” to discover how these changes influence Kenzaburō Ōe’s perception of himself, nature, and the universe. Kenzaburō Ōe has broken through the barriers of his own mind by the creation of the modern mythology, the “rain tree” to seek hope from desperation, leading a harmonious life among human beings, nature, and the universe.