2018 Volume 98 Pages 116-131
“Symposium on Meiji Literature” is an organization that was founded in 1933. One of the fundamental starting points for the academic study of modern Japanese literature, it sponsored academic presentations and bibliographical research into individual authors, held interviews with elderly literary figures, and systematically collected books and other necessary materials. The aim of this paper is to rethink the concept of the “history of literature.” To that end, I have surveyed the journal published by this organization and other relevant materials, examining them from the perspective of the “history of scholarship,” which allows me to shed an objective light on the study of literature. As an example of the power of “discourse,” I focus particularly on a series of recorded remarks made by Kinoshita Naoe, following the ways in which historical materials concerning the “High Treason Incident” were unearthed, and the opportunities and modes they provided for connecting historical discourse to “literature.” In addition, I trace this organization's influence on Itō Sei's Nihon Bundan-shi (History of the Japanese Literary Scene), and consider the possibilities for historical narrative when it is stimulated by methods of listening to and recording “discourse.”
