伊藤整の'M百貨店'論 -モダニズム小？と百貨店-

Abstract

The novel "M department store" was published in 1931. It was written by Sei Itoh, a famous writer and translator in Japan. In Asia, he is the first translator who translated Joyce's "Ulysses". He tried a new writing technique which learned from "Ulysses". In a result Sei Itoh wrote "M department store". G-town, the stage of novel, is supposed to be Ginza which was the busy street in those days. It seems that resonable, the modernist wrote on city as background. However, Sei Itoh particularly described on the indoor space of department store. It was a new experiment. But, the creation was begun by imitating the technique of Joyce. "M department store" was not a simple imitation. It was more clear when this work was reflected by Walter Benjamin's “Passage theory". “M department store” shows the abuses which comes from desire(Benjamin called it poison)of Capitalism. The new technique was the most important thing of modernism in Japanese Literature. Therefore Japanese modernists tried out various techniques. However, in this novel, we find out the critical acumen on the humans in the city life in a society under Capitalism system. I think that "M department store" was the successful modern novel, in technique as well as in contents.