深沢七郎文学のアイロニー構造と 戦争批判 『笛吹川』｢異説太閤記｣を中心に

Irony and the Critique of War in Fukazawa Shichiro’s Works On Fuefuki-gawa River and Toyotomi Hideyoshi s Heterodoxy

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As a writer who experienced WWII, Fukazawa Shichiro (1914-1987) highlights anti-war themes in his work. This paper mainly focuses on his two novels Fuefuki-gawa River and Heterodoxy about Toyotomi Hideyoshi in order to analyze the ironic framework in which Shichiro levels sharp criticisms of war. The paper is comprised of three parts, namely an analysis of the discordancies that are internal to common folk in Shichiro s work, those between the common folk and the ruling classes, and those which are internal to the ruling class. In the Afterword to Fuefuki-gawa River, Shichiro proposes the term “backhand”, which denotes a kind of philosophical schizophrenia, as the key concept that expresses the unique outlook of the common folk in his novels. There are ironic contradictions between the expectations of the people who are at the bottom of the social hierarchy and the fate that will realistically be theirs. Despite hating the war, they can’t utterly reject it. They are involved in wars involuntarily, but they simultaneously have a deeprooted and blind belief in the ruling classes who start those wars. In contrast, the ruling classes control the people by disseminating a spirit of self-sacrifice merely in order to satisfy their lust for glory. In this sense, it can be said that in Shichiro’s work the ruling classes are depicted as deeply stupid. He portrays both those at the bottom and the ruler in a wartime context, creating a contrapositive ironic composition. Through the description of the multiple relationships between and among social classes, the complexities of human nature are conveyed objectively, while the anti-war theme is emphasized from the perspective of home and of lived reality. As individuals who are living in the midst of collective violence, including war, we must reflect on our own moral fiber, which is the important subject that Fukazawa Shichiro’s works have presented to us.