요시야 노부코(吉屋信子) 문학의 전쟁책임 – ‘전쟁미망인(戦争未亡人)’을 둘러싼 담론을 중심으로 –

Abstract

This paper is part of an effort to inquire into the war guilt in the literary works of Nobuko Yoshiya. Yoshiya's literary works sought an exclusively female community for women who did not wish to follow the conventional women's policy which entailed that a woman should be "a good wife and wise mother." Her literary works exhibit changes in the representation of widows and women in general as she joins the war effort as a member of "the Imperial Army comfort correspondents" and the "Pen Unit" when the Sino-Japanese War broke out. In this study, we will see that Yoshiya's novel "the Widow" emphasizes the "maternal instinct" and "sacrifice" which her other previous works of literature did not deal with. We will also see that her novel is in sympathy with the women's policy of the time and the remarriage denial which was part of the expected discourse concerning the women of the day. We have also pointed out that the symbolism which had been imposed only on war widows was being transferred also to widows in general. The Sino-Japanese War, also known as "the Hundred Years' War" or "the Eternal War," made all the soldiers' wives on the home front potential war widows. In this way, Yoshiya's literary works needed to construct an idealized image of the "war widow" or just "widow" because of the fact that a great number of Yoshiya's readers were women. To meet this need, Yoshiya's works provided a driving force for the war by imprisoning women in a system of sacrifice and endurance. For this reason, it is thought that we can pursue a close inquiry into the war guilt in Yoshiya's literary works.