小林秀雄『無常といふ事』論 - 古典と知の生起 -

Abstract

From the perspective of criticism language,it is inevitable to mention that there was little relation between Hideo Kobayashi and the Japanese classic literature. We regard Kobayashi as a literary scholar who sought the possibility of criticism in connection with the Japanese literature contemporaryto the scholars of the French literature. It is a remarkable fact that Kobayashi published his criticism of the classic literature, entitled Mujoto‐iu‐koto, during the wartime. This, we argue, was an attempt of Kobayashi to explore the relation between Kobayashi himself and Japan at the time when people of the nation were engaged in the Japanism. In Mujoto‐iu‐koto, Kobayashiaddresses fundamental issues of Japan, reducing them to the universal realms of literary thoughts. The themes of this exploration range over almost all elements of literary thoughts, such as language, beauty, thought, tradition, and history. In this article, we analyzeeach theme and, based on these analyses, investigate the nature of Kobayashi’s criticism of the classic literature.