The Significance of Bodies in Soseki's Kokoro

Abstract

S INCE the time it first appeared, Natsume Soseki's RH El*AU Kokoro 6 I (The Heart, 1914) has been the subject of a wide range of theoretical and historical studies; the last decade has seen a particularly productive upsurge in interest among literary critics in both Japan and the West. Among other things, critics have suggested that there are links between the novel, its canonization as a literary text representing modem Japan, and nation-state formation.' But although Soseki (1867-1916) is often regarded as having articulated the major problems and potentialities in the Meiji intellectual field, to date the depictions of intense physicality between his literary characters have gone largely unnoticed. His concern with corporeality is an underrated manifestation of his more general engagement with the problems of his times, and a reading of his depictions of the physical body as part and parcel of the wider body politic will, I