“Onita no Boshi,” a Literary Teaching Material Conceived from the Edge Awareness: To Overcome the Issues of “Reader Response Theory”

Abstract

　　 This paper presents curriculum guidance-related research on reading within Japanese language courses. The background is that from the 1980s on, Japan has been impacted by reader theories from English-speaking countries. This paper especially considers issues related to reader-response theory, which is still the mainstream literature education theory in Japan today. To go beyond said theory in reconsidering the roles, etc., of students (i.e., readers) within literature education, the author employs the concept of “Edge awareness” and uses it to analyze the text, “Onita no Boshi” Specifically, this paper presents an investigation of, and considerations regarding, the practice of a reader (student learner) interiorization approach, which attempts to make connections with “passageways” into the “interior” of the student learner, as described in reader response theory. Results demonstrated the need to confirm and clarify the “interior of the student learner,” something that has not been sufficiently discussed and debated in conventional curriculum guidance research and practices related to reading within Japanese language courses, which are (as noted) based on reader response theory. Study results indicated that said “interior” is indeed the site where students are “moved” and where “displacement” occurs, which can be linked with the reformulation of an approach that enables retellings in the self-narrations of readers.