戦時下の太宰小説に描かれる疎外者と共感意識 –『東京だより』･『作家の手帖』における〈産業戦士〉を軸に–

Abstract

Dazai’s works of the wartime period involved the structure of alienation, focusing on the words “industrial soldier”. During the Pacific War when increasing production was the greatest goal, an industrial soldier was part of the mainstream receiving preference from the country and represented a healthy and energetic person on the opposite side of the weak and unhealthy. Along with the “industrial soldier”, weak and alienated persons are found in Dazai’s novels. “A Writer’s NoteBook” describes a feeling of alienation among a group of industrial soldiers, and “Tokyo Dayori” portrays two alienated persons among a group of industrial soldiers. In other words, besides a girl with disabled legs who is a superficial alienated person, “I” is concealed as an another alienated person of the era like the girl. Such position of “I” as an alienated person may be discovered by way of understanding the social background during the wartime period that the industrial soldier belongs to. Moreover, the girl’s “desperate reality” may be understood by means of “I”’s empathy for the girl. These novels are those that describes the empathy for the then alienated persons and the understanding of humanity through the eyes of “I”, an alienated person, rather than those that are read based on the question, whether they stand up against or for the national state of affairs.