Transgenerational Trauma in Ichiyo Higuchi’s WAREKARA – A Multidisciplinary Approach to Literary Research
Zsolt Nyeste
A PhD student of the Japanese Philology Doctoral Program at Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary. Currently working as, a Japanese teacher. Email: nyeste.zsolt@hunfalvy.com
Abstract
In this paper, I examine the heroine, Omachi’s fate in Warekara – one of the last stories of Higuchi Ichiyo, the principal female author in the Meiji era –using multidisciplinary approaches. Besides literary theory, I mainly rely on a psychological perspective and the relatively new concept of transgenerational trauma. This latter can serve as an organising force behind the story’s episodic structure and also as a determining factor in the fates of the story’s two heroines, Mio, and her daughter, Omachi. With the use of multidisciplinary approaches, I expect to widen the possible interpretations of Warekara.
Keywords Ichiyo Higuchi’s WAREKARA . Omachi’s fate in warekara . Transgenerational trauma in a Japanese short novel . Multidisciplinary approach to literary research .
https://doi.org/10.55156/jjsem.dec2131