치유적 관점에서 살펴본 다자이 오사무(太宰治) 소설 - 『판도라의 상자(パンドラの匣)』를 중심으로 -

Abstract

In this article, we analyze Osamu Dazai’s Pandora’s Boxin order to explore “cure” and “utility” of literary works. Firstly, we examine the ways in which human actions and the method of expressions in the spatial background relate to “cure,” in connection with a descriptive device. At the time, the work captured laughter generated at a hospital, a space for downfall and reversal, focusing on patients of tuberculosis, an incurable illness. “Carnival laughter” represented in this work lets the patients take their disease and death less seriously, serving as a “cure” factor for alleviating pain. On the other hand, we claim that in the descriptive structure called “letter,” it is the letters and poems produced by the characters that cure the patients. We also consider the ways in which they are represented as those who accept their disease and death themselves but still act cheerfully and maintain their hope. In particular, Hibari faces the death of a student, deeply reflecting on the notion of life and praising Basho’s “lightness” with her decision about the naïve and light notion of life. Dazai portrays the process whereby the hope‐maintaining attitude to life and resurgence are achieved and nicely represents the figure of Hibari, who is cured. Therefore, the discussion of death and disease, symbolized in this literary work, will provide self‐cure for those who have similar experiences. Besides, we contend that the works by Dazai acquire the sense of empathy and cure in that they enable contemporary people to encounter pseudo‐experiences of the literary world in the similar emotive context.