Purifying the Narcissist hero; A Feminist study of Kawabata Yasunari’s Snow Country

Abstract

This study examines the portrayal of women in Yasunari Kawabata's work Snow Country, specifically focusing on their depiction as individuals characterized by vulnerability, subordination, and objectification. Kawabata Yasunari was a renowned Japanese author who was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature for elucidating the Japanese mentality in his writings.In 1938, he released his most celebrated novel, Yukiguni (The Snow Country). Set in a remote hot spring town in the mountainous foothills of northern Japan, Snow Country is a dismal tale of a love affair between a Tokyo socialite and a regional geisha. In the novel, Women are labelled as weaklings. They are the ones who constantly weep and are frequently abandoned, whereas men are the dominant and stronger species. The narrative depicts women solely as sexual objects for males.