Itō Junji and Dazai Osamu: The Face and the Tongue of Horror in 'Ningen Shikkaku'

• Main Author: Dorichenko, Oleksandra
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Subjects: abjection; cognition; cognitive approach; Dazai Osamu; horror; Ito Junji; manga

The growth in popularity of the horror genre in the past few decades has coincided with the birth and rise of the reader-oriented approach to analyzing literature, allowing the scholars of horror literature to uncover the mechanisms of fear that works of horror employ to affect their readers. This coinciding allows and provides the necessary methodological and theoretical tools for the broadening of the concept of “horror” as defined by the effects various literary pieces have on their readers, rather than purely the preliminary assignment of the genre to certain works of literature. This paper takes advantage of this circumstance and discusses a classic Japanese novel from 1948 by the famous writer Dazai Osamu titled Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human) from the perspective of the reader, identifying and analyzing the horror elements of the novel. The 2017-2018 horror manga (Japanese comic book) adaptation by Itō Junji is also analyzed in comparison to the original novel from the same perspective. No other analyses of Ningen Shikkaku as a work of horror with the employment of the reader-centric approach have been previously conducted, and as such this thesis provides a fresh perspective on this classic text and the potential reasons behind its persistent popularity and relevance even in the modern day. The analysis employs the cognitive approach to literary analysis, the theory of abjection by Julia Kristeva and various works on horror theory and history as its theoretical and methodological basis. As a result of the analysis conducted, the following core elements of horror that affect the reader have been identified in the novel: the “adornment” (“framing”) of the novel with its unique perspective shift; the defamiliarization of the reader with the normal world; the performative “buffoonery” of the protagonist of the novel; the dehumanization of humans and himself by the protagonist; the unique attitudes of the protagonist towards women in his life and in general. These elements that we were able to identify within the novel provide a unique perspective on the novel that goes beyond its assigned position as an intellectual classic. The result of the analysis demonstrates the ability of the cognitive reader-centric approach to literary analysis to go beyond the constraints of genre and analyze literature in terms of its effects on the reader, uncovering the reasons behind the popularity and influence of certain literary works. Lastly, the analysis also showc