Fatalism in Anya-koro : Naoya Shiga and Maeterlinck

Abstract

Anya-koro has been often said to be a novel of fatalism. The plot, based on Maeterlinck's story Wisdom and Fate, that Kensaku Tokito is haunted by the shadow of fate and makes every attempt to escape from it is fatalistic enough. In Anya-koro, however, Kensaku incessantly changes his fatalistic idea and consequently comes to the conclusion that fate is nothing but a way of interpreting the world. Thus Shiga refuses the monistic viewpoint of fatalism and at the same time liberates the text from a single meaning.