『오에 겐자부로 자선단편』에서 본 ‘다시 쓰기’와 시대정신—미군 등장의 초기단편을 중심으로

Abstract

Oe Kenzaburo published in 2014 “Oe Kenzaburo’s Self-Selected Stories,” which is a collection of selected short stories that reflect on the life of the author in old age. Oe mentions in the “epilogue” of this collection of works that he decided to reread all of the novels he had written, and says that rereading is, in part, the act of rewriting, and that through the process of rereading, one can decipher the spirit of the times in the work. This manuscript compared the rewritten portions of three works including “Breeding,””Human Sheep,” and “Unexpected Dub,” which appear in “America,” one of his early works in”Oe Kenzaburo’s Self-Selected Stories,” to clarify the spirit of the times. These works can illuminate how they are infused with Oe’s spirit of the times at the time of their publication. The “rewritten” portions in these three works are evident through the sentence expressions, but the rewrite did not cause any changes to the contents of the work. It was possible to reconfirm, however, the trend that contemplates Oe’s era, that is, the time the work was published. Furthermore, the act of rewriting itself can also be seen as a reflection of the current spirit of the times. “Rewriting” can possibly verify the image of Oe as a writer to his readers.