일본문학 속 신경병의 계보 일본 전통예능에서 표출되는 신경병 양상을 중심으로 = The genealogy of neurological diseases in Japanese literature Focusing on the neuropathological dimensions of traditional Japanese arts

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

In this paper, we examine how neuropathological speech patterns took shape in traditional cultural works from the late Edo to the early Meiji period. First of all, this paper argues that a certain level of madness was frequently used as a major component in Kabuki drama, and examines the relationship between neurological disease and difficulty in Sometazutakenoharugoma, in which mental illness is referred to. Furthermore, it focuses on Rakugo’s work Shinkei Kasanegahuchi, which illustrates the modalities of neurological diseases in the post-Meiji process of modernization. Through the process of tracing the genealogy of neuropathy from the late Edo to the Meiji period, we attempt to understand the characteristic speech patterns of the Meiji period, which replaced previous neuropathological usages in many ways.
Revenge is an indispensable subject in Japanese classical literature. The avenging of parents, brothers and husbands after the endurance of brutal hardship was constantly reproduced in novels and plays. Revenge is inevitably accompanied by the use of force, and in these works more vulnerable figures such as women and young men attract strong people and receive help from them in exacting revenge. This is seen in Skedachi, or Igago Dochu Sugoroku, a Bunraku work, and in Igagoe‘s revenge, whose first performance in 1783 is famous. Here, vengeance is achieved with the help of others who are experienced in swordsmanship.
Meanwhile, characters who die unjustly, through murder for example, become ghosts and visit the perpetrators and take revenge. The post-mortem taking of revenge on one's own account is a trope of the revenge play in that a character has failed to protect himself because he is weak during his life, and becomes capable of strength only after he dies. The ghosts that appear in recent post-fiction novels or Kabuki plays, which we see in Sometazutakenoharugoma, are social underdogs, typical examples being the blind, and sick women. The device of the ghost is a means for them to execute their grudge. Of course, there are stories of ghosts directly taking the life of their assailant, but in Kabuki plays and related novels, assaults on assailants on the basis of mistaken identity are frequently seen. The situation at that time, when curses were considered one of the causes of mental illness, created a link between insanity, optical illusion and the curses of ghosts.
Shinkei, which was used in a similar sense to 'spirit', was a newly-coined term that came into use as a result of social difficulties in Edo society. However, the term nervousness, which is found in the literary works of the late Edo period, was merely generated by newspapers.
It was not until later that the neurological came to have a close relationship with 'spirit'. As seen in works such as Shinkei Kasanegahuchi, the establishment of modern medicine and neurology have become a subject of many ghost stories. In the pre-modern period, a series of processes in which the socially disadvantaged, such as the disabled and women, became ghosts who caused mental disorder in assailants were prevalent, and later were seen as neuropathological symptoms.