Self-Improvement and Nature: A Change in “Young Men” and the Birth of “Middle Age”

Abstract

Although until late in the nineteenth century it was hoped that “young men” would be the leaders of the new Japan, by the early twentieth century, the scientific discourse of adolescent psychology had begun to redefine them as a dangerously unstable generation. In the new century, they were encouraged to discipline themselves and get on in the world. The age of self-improvement had begun. At the same time, this meant the appearance of those whose youth was already over; in other words, the middle-aged. In this paper, I position middle-aged writers as the main supporters of the naturalist movement in literature, and show how their philosophy of acceptance of the “natural” self was diametrically opposed to the contemporaneous craze for “self-discipline” and “self-improvement.” After Futon (1907), Tayama Katai's novel of middle-aged love, naturalistic literature was the product of a middle-aged mindset.