소세키와 니체의 ‘광기’론과 막스 노르다우- 『나는 고양이로소이다』 ‘광인 편지’의 풍자적 전복 -

Abstract

This paper examines how Natsume Sōseki critically distanced himself from and satirically subverted Max Nordau’s critique of Friedrich Nietzsche. Nordau famously characterized Nietzsche’s philosophy and style as pathological “madness,” a view that profoundly shaped late 19th-century European intellectual discourse. This discourse also spread to Japan, where the motifs of madness and genius were consumed in contradictory ways—as both signs of decadence and sources of creative inspiration. Unlike many contemporaries who passively adopted this framework, Sōseki reinterpreted it with irony and critical detachment. In I Am a Cat, the “madman’s letter” mimics Nordau’s description of Nietzsche’s incoherent style but ultimately parodies and subverts the discourse itself. Through this device, Sōseki transformed madness from a mark of degeneration into a source of artistic creativity and self-reflection, thereby highlighting the critical self-consciousness of modern Japanese literature and its reflexive engagement with Western thought. Through this device, Sōseki transformed madness from a mark of degeneration into a source of artistic creativity and self-reflection, thereby highlighting the critical self-consciousness of modern Japanese literature and its reflexive engagement with Western thought. Through this device, Sōseki transformed madness from a mark of degeneration into a source of artistic creativity and self-reflection, thereby highlighting the critical self-consciousness of modern Japanese literature and its reflexive engagement with Western thought. This revaluation of madness underscores Sōseki’s refusal to accept Western discourses uncritically and his effort to reframe them within a Japanese literary horizon. In doing so, his parody not only destabilized Eurocentric notions of degeneration but also affirmed the autonomy of modern Japanese aesthetics.