The emphasis of this paper is on the characteristic similarities between the poetical works of William Wordsworth and the novels of Kunikida Doppo who owed much of his creative method and imagination to the works of the former.

　Interestingly enough, Wordsworth and Doppo had something in common in their life experiences: even though in different parts of the world, both of them once devoted themselves to the ideal of social reformation as can be seen in the cases when Wordsworth passionately sympathized with the French Revolution and Doppo intended to be a statesman and reformer of society. But due to extenuating circumstances regarding their own societies and personal environments, neither of them was able to become actively involved in the pursuit of their ideals. As a result, they lost confidence in human affairs and turned to nature where they found comfort and solace.

　It is when they faced nature that they meditated on the meaning of human life and death in this universe, which was always a metaphysical question for both Wordsworth and Doppo. Through this experience they were able to develop their “love of nature” which eventually led them to “love of man.”

　Two of the main characteristics of Wordsworth’s works, as Doppo maintains, are an exploration of the spiritual interaction between man and nature and reminiscences from his own childhood. Doppo produced his works along these lines. Just as Wordsworth chose incidents and situations from common life in order to relate or describe them, Doppo chose his materials from ordinary human life.

　One of the purposes of Wordsworth’s works was to expand the reader’s feeling of reverence for the poor, including beggars and idiots, and knowledge of human nature to show that the best qualities of human nature are possessed by those people. Doppo interestingly had quite a similar objective when he too wrote about the poor and oppressed in his novels.

　Emile Magne’s L’Esthétique des Villes (1908) which deals with the city from various points of view, influenced Kafū, as is revealed by certain aspects of his work, Hiyori-geta (1915), especially the classification of water in relationship to the city as one of the important elements of urban landscape. Kafū shares with Magne an appreciation for the vitality of the canals of the metropolis. However, Kafū goes so far as to appreciate the drains in the slum quarters of the Yamanote area; Magne’s interest in tasteful scenery does not allow him to admire such areas. Kafū regards the scenery of slums and drains in Yamanote as a “vision of misery” parallel to the tenement-houses and melancholic ditches of Shitamachi. To Kafū’s eye, the “vision of misery” is a metaphor of the “spirit of resignation” or “sense of quiescence” which inspires him poetically. Such a poetic inspiration for Kafū is stimulated by the beauty of the decaying city as depicted novelistically by G. Rodenbach in Bruges-la-Morte (1892). Kafū, with a fetishistic taste, associates the melancholy of the city Bruges and its canals with the “vision of misery.” The perspective on the urban landscape is also different between Magne and Kafū.The fact that Kafū’s eye is not focused on the center of the city but on the unknown corners of Tokyo as Magne’s is focused on the bustling quais of the Seine, leads us to conclude that Kafū’s appreciation of Magne’s work was adapted to his particular taste.

　In this essay, I have tried to show how Hinatsu Kōnosuke came to form his poetic style. He called it “the Gothic-Roman style,” and I think its roots can be found in the tradition of Western cultural history, specifically, in the aesthetic of the sublime. “The sublime” is an idea that appeared at the end of seventeenth century in England. It changed remarkably the way mountains have been viewed in Europe. Since then mountains that had been regarded as horrible have become places whose desolation people find pleasing. This new sensibility was named “the sublime” by Edmund Burke. I think “the sublime” was a counter current against scientific rationalism. The medieval hierarchical universe, which is the setting of Dante's Divine Comedy, was destroyed by the scientific discoveries of Copernicus, Newton, etc., and God was replaced by nature. The result was the loss of “the sacred.” I think “the sublime,” was compensation for this loss.

　This taste for “the sublime” was introduced in Japan in the Meiji period, and brought about a new taste for mountains. Hinatsu Kōnosuke’s Gothic-Roman style can be interpreted as a literary expression of this Japanese “sublime.” It is characterized by the frequent use of dificult and obsolete Chinese characters, which impress the reader by their strange appearance. He called this effect “the spirit of Chinese characters.” He had an innate taste for negative things, so it is only natural for him to have had an affinity for the aesthetic of the sublime Moreover, the pleasure he got from such negative beauty was compensation for his miserable life, and his literary expressions of it were, for him, a kind of salvation. He crystalized his highly-sophisticated symbolic 190 poems with the help of alchemic symbolism. In forming his style, he was greatly influenced by E. A. Poe. He assimilated Poe’s Gothicism, but changed the emphasis from rhythm to the visual effects of Chinese characters. It is here that we can see evidence of Kōnosuke’ originality.

　Schon als Student beschäftigte sich Martin Walser mit Franz Kafkas Dichtung und wählte „Beschreibung einer Form“ als Thema seiner Dissertation, in der er sich mit dem dichterischen Selbstverständnis und der Erzähltechnik Kafkas auseinandersetzte. Walser beeindruckten damals besonders die Bestimmtheit und das Ausgeliefertsein der Personen Kafkas, da dies auch seinen eigenen persönlichen Erfahrungen entsprach.

　ln Walsers ersten Sammelband „Ein Flugzeug über dem Haus und andere Geschichten“ finden sich ebenfalls starke Einflüsse Kafkas, Aus den neun Erzählungen dieses Bandes sollen die folgenden zwei, näher untersucht und verglichen werden: „Gefahrenvoller Aufenthalt" und „Templones Tod“

　In „Gefahrenvoller Aufenthalt“ überkommt die Hauptfigur plötzlich das Verlangen, nicht mehr vom Bett aufstehen zu wollen. Daher ist sie auch nicht mehr in der Lage, mit der Außenwelt Kontakt zu halten. Schließlich gerät allmählich sogar ihr Leben in Gefahr. Das Motiv „im Bett liegen zu bleiben“ erinnert stark an die Hauptfigur Gregor Samsa in Kafkas „Verwandlung“, obwohl Walsers Hauptfigur sich nicht verwandelt.

　Während Herr Templone, die Hauptfigur der Erzählung „Templones Ende“, nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg ruhig mit seiner Tochter auf seinem Besitz lebt, sieht er viele Häuser in der Nachbarschaft ihre Besitzer wechseln. Vergebens bemüht er sich seine Tochter, sich selbst und seinen Besitz zu verteidigen. Schließlich stirbt er aus Angst vor der Außenwelt. Sein Tod symbolisiert den tragischen Konflikt zwischen der Gesellschaft und dem Einzelnen. In diesem Sinne gleicht diese Erzählung dem „Prozeß“ von Kafka, in dem die Hauptfigur Josef K. wie ein Hund durch eine unheimliche Gerichtsorganisation abgerichtet wird.

　Obwohl Walser selbst jeden Satz seines Werkes in der Wirklichkeit begründet sieht, ist seine Dichtung dennoch nicht nur bloße Beschreibung der Wirklichkeit, sondern auch seine Reaktion darauf. Während Walsers Verarbeitung der Wirklichkeit stets von sozialkritischen Motiven geprägt ist, spielen bei Kafka darüber hinaus auch jüdische, metaphysische, autobiographische und tiefenpsychologische Motive eine starke Rolle.

　In New Orleans, Lafcadio Hearn had many experiences which enriched his life both personally and creatively, one of which was a brief friendship with Leona Queyrouze, a New Orleans writer, who was also a member of a wealthy Creole family. When Hearn met Queyrouze, she was well-known in Creole circles as a writer of essays and poems. He gave her advice on poetic matters, while in return, he engaged her to help him translate some phrases into the Creole language.

　After five months, Hearn departed for the West Indies and they never met again, but such was his impact on her that she never forgot him. She wrote poetry of which he was the subject, one of which, “Fantôme d’Occident : A Lafcadio Hearn au Japon”, is said to have been sent to him in Japan. In addition, thirty years after his death, Queyrouze published his letters to her with a commentary. The collection entitled The Idyl : My Personal Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn is suffused with the profound affection she felt for him.

　In this article, it is my intention to present a profile of Leona Queyrouze and to examine the nature of the brief relationship she enjoyed with Hearn, using materials such as the “Hutson Family Papers” and The Idyl : My Personal Reminiscences of Lafcadio Hearn.

　Erich Kästners “Das doppelte Lottchen" (1949) war ein epochemachendes Werk, das ein Tabu in der damaligen Jugendliteratur, nämlich die Ehescheidung der Eltern, zum ersten Mal behandelte. Zwar endet die Geschichte glücklich mit der traumhaften 'Wiederverheiratung' der Eltern, aber die echte Neuheit dieses Werkes besteht darin, daß es den Prozeß der 'Wiederverheiratung' durch die Veränderung des Gefühls nicht der Kinder, sondern der Erwachsenen darstellt.

　Bisher sind in Japan zwei Übersetzungen und drei Drehbücher ausgehend von diesem Werk verfaßt worden. Es gibt in diesen japanischen Bearbeitungen einige gemeinsame Abänderungen, die mit der Charakterisierung der Personen zusammenhängen. Luise, eine der Zwillinge, erzogen nur vom Vater, ist sehr tollkühn, sie kujoniert sogar andere Mädchen, obwohl sie im Original nur ein heiteres, lebhaftes und freundliches Geschöpf war. Fräulein Gerlach, die Geliebte des Vaters, ist in den japanischen Fassungen nicht nur jung und schön wie im Original, sondern auch sehr reich, dazu, noch bösartig und arrogant. Der Vater, Herr Palfy, der ursprünglich ein im Alltag unselbständiger und strenger Künstler war, ist ein gutmütiger und einfältiger Vater geworden. Frau Körner wird dagegen von Anfang an als gute Mutter dargestellt.

　Der Grund dafür, daß die japanischen Erwachsenen eine gemeinsame Richtung in ihren Bearbeitungen eingeschlagen haben, liegt darin, daß sie die Darstellung des Liebesverhältnisses zwischen den Erwachsenen vermeiden wollten. Deshalb wurde der Zusammenhang zwischen Herrn Palfy und Fräulein Gerlach nicht mehr durch Liebe, sondern durch ökonomischen Zwang auf ihn motiviert, oder nur als Beweis der Einfalt des Vaters dargestellt. Und Frau Körner entscheidet, wieder ihren ehemaligen Mann zu heiraten, nicht weil sie seine Wandlung zum Guten schätzt, sondern weil sie selbst so großmütig geworden ist, ihm seine Unselbständigkeit zu erlauben.

　One of the basic critical approaches of literary interpretation is consolidating textual meanings, especially in relation to the historical meanings of words and details about the author and her/ his time period. I will demonstrate the importance of this approach by examining two types of poem. One was called butsumeishi by Shimada Tadaomi (828—892), and the other was called kaibun-shi by Tachibanano Aritsura (? —953).

　Both of the authors realized their own unique world in the limited world of the genre, kanshi, which came from China. Butsumeishi is produced by using a technique of kakekotoba, which is a kind of pun. Kaibunshi uses a style in which the poem may be read either from the beginning or the end, and the meaning and the meter are the same.

　Shimada Tadaomi created the archetype of butsumeika in Kokinwakashu. Tachibanano Aritsura established the style of kaibunshi in the Japanese world, and although the Japanese are not so much influenced by meter in writing poems, we should notice his outstanding sense for meter.