미시마 유키오의 시니시즘에 대한 고찰

A Study on the Cynicism of Yukio Mishima - Focusing on Early Short Story -

The novel A Kind Machine deals with cynicism which is triggered by the contrast between a case of murder, which is the main topic of the novel, and a burglary of a bush warbler in a department store, which is narrated at the end of the story. The questions is, as Yukio Mishima said, whether ‘a few words of cynism shown at the end of the novel is nothing but an act of fun.’ I would say it is not. For Mishima, the cynicism is thought to be a tool that determined the view, as well as the methods, of his literary works. The cynicism in Mishima’s works not only represents the concept of yin and yang, but also relates to various types of causal relationship involving the notions of ‘sensitivity’ and ‘classicism.’ His idea of cynicism is reflected in his short stories in which he described a slanted view on reality. Focusing on three short stories, ‘The Vacation of a Volcano,’ ‘The Island of Death,’ and ‘An Epitaph of a Travel,’ I would like to discuss how he applied or transformed his cynicism. First, I would suggest that in ‘The Vacation of a Volcano,’ the cynicism appears as both the image of Ziro’s view of everyday life and a criticism on civilization. Also, in both ‘The Island of Death’ and ‘An Epitaph of a Travel,’ the cynicism is transformed, being discarded as a result of Ziro’s self‐consciousness in the former, and Zino, the narrator, appearing in the form of an objectified first person ‘I’ in the latter. It should be noted, as I conclude, considering cynicism in Mishima’s works serves as a foundation for any research on his ingenious aspects of his literature in any period.