The Shifting Appreciation of "Hamlet" in Its Japanese Novelizations: Hideo Kobayashi’s "Ophelia’s Will" and Its Revisions

Authors

  • Mori Nakatani Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.21.05

Keywords:

Shakespeare reception, adaptation, novelization, Shakespeare in Japan, „Hamlet”, Hideo Kobayashi

Abstract

Hideo Kobayashi, who is today known as one of the most prominent literary critics of the Showa era in Japan, published Ophelia’s Will in 1931 when he was still an aspiring novelist. This novella was an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, composed as a letter written by Ophelia to Hamlet before her enigmatic death in the original play. While the novel has previously been considered as a psychological novel that sought to illustrate the inner life of the Shakespearean heroine, this paper examines the process by which Kobayashi rediscovered Hamlet as a drama that foregrounds the impenetrability of the characters’ inwardness and highlighted in Ophelia’s Will his diversion from the psychological rendition of Ophelia. In so doing, the paper analyses the revisions Kobayashi continued to make to the novel even until the post-war era, especially when it was republished in 1933 and 1949. Though these revisions have rarely been discussed by the researchers, they demonstrate the essential changes made to the novel, mainly to its literary style, which corroborates Kobayashi’s shifting interest and his developing interpretation of Shakespeare’s works and Hamlet.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

Mori Nakatani, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan

Mori Nakatani is a Program-Specific Research Fellow at the Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University. She holds MA in Human and Environmental Studies from Kyoto University (2015) and MA in Shakespeare Studies from the University of Birmingham (2017). Her research focuses on the translations and adaptations of Shakespeare's plays in Japanese.

References

Anzai, Tetsuo. Nihon no Sheikusupia 100-nen [The Hundred Years of Shakespeare in Japan]. Tokyo: Aratake-shuppan, 1989.
Google Scholar

Ashizu, Kaori. “A Document in Madness – Kobayashi Hideo ‘Oferiya Ibun’ ni okeru Kotoba to ‘Hamuretto’ Hihyou” [A Document in Madness – Language in Hideo Kobayashi’s Ophelia’s Will and His Criticism on Hamlet]. Albion 64 (2018): 29-43.
Google Scholar

Ashizu, Kaori. “What’s Hamlet to Japan?”. The New Variorum Hamlet Project. 28 December 2019. http://triggs.djvu.org/global-language.com/ENFOLDED/BIBL/__HamJap.htm
Google Scholar

Barker, Francis. The Tremulous Private Body: Essays on Subjection. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1995.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9516

Fukuda, Tsuneari. “Sheikusupia e Kaere” [Return to Shakespeare]. Yuriika [Eureka] November 1980: 78-86.
Google Scholar

Fukuda, Tsuneari. Ningen Kono Gekitekinarumono [Human, the Dramatic Being]. Fukuda Tsuneari Zenshu [The Complete Works of Tsuneari Fukuda]. Vol. 3. Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 1887. 519-593.
Google Scholar

Fukuda, Tsuneari. Horeisho Nikki [Horatio’s Diary]. Fukuda Tsuneari Zenshu [The Complete Works of Tsuneari Fukuda]. Vol. 8. Tokyo: Bungei Shunju, 1888. 9-67.
Google Scholar

Karatani, Kojin. Origins of Modern Japanese Literature. Trans. Brett de Bary. Durham: Duke UP, 1993.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822378440

Kashihara, Osamu. “‘Oferiya Ibun’ Shiron” [An Essay on Ophelia’s Will]. Kokugo Kokubungaku-shu [Essays on Japanese and Japanese Literature] 9 (1980): 63-76.
Google Scholar

Kawachi, Yoshiko. “Hamlet and Japanese Men of Letters”. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 14 (2016): 123-135.
Google Scholar DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/mstap-2016-0020

Kawatake, Toshio. Nihon no Hamuretto [Hamlet in Japan]. Tokyo: Nanso-sha, 1972.
Google Scholar

Kishi, Tetsuo and Graham Bradshaw. Shakespeare in Japan. New York: Continuum, 2005.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. “Oferiya Ibun” [Ophelia’s Will]. Kaizo [Reformation] November 1931: 38-52.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. “Hamuretto ni tsuite” [On Hamlet]. Sao Fukko [The Shakespeare Renaissance] 1 (1933): 24-25.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. Oferiya Ibun [Ophelia’s Will]. Tokyo: Sansai-sha, 1933.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. X eno Tegami [The Letter to X]. Tokyo: Shiba-shoten, 1949.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. Oferiya Ibun [Ophelia’s Will]. Kobayashi Hideo Zenshu [The Complete Works of Hideo Kobayashi]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Sogen-sha, 1950. 61-75.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. “Kanso – Hamuretto to Rasukorinikofu” [Impression – Hamlet and Raskolnikov]. Shincho [New Tide] August 1955: 116-120.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. Oferiya Ibun [Ophelia’s Will]. Kobayashi Hideo Zenshu [The Complete Works of Hideo Kobayashi]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 1956. 24-36.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. X eno Tegami / Shishosetsu-ron [The Letter to X / An Essay on I-novels]. Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 1962.
Google Scholar

Kobayashi, Hideo. Oferiya Ibun [Ophelia’s Will]. Kobayashi Hideo Zenshu [The Complete Works of Hideo Kobayashi]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 1968. 164-182.
Google Scholar

Nakata, Yoshiaki. “Fukuhara Rintaro to Nakano Yoshio – Kyoyo toshiteno Sheikusupia” [Rintaro Fukuhara and Yoshio Nakano – Shakespeare in Education]. Nihon no Sheikusupia 100-nen [The Hundred Years of Shakespeare in Japan]. Ed. Tetsuo Anzai. Tokyo: Aratake-shuppan, 1989. 43-84.
Google Scholar

Negishi, Yasuko. “‘Oferiya Ibun’ – ‘Hamuretto’ toiu Shiten kara” [Ophelia’s Will – From the Viewpoint of Hamlet]. Kokubungaku: Kaishaku to Kansho [Japanese Literature Studies: Interpretation and Appreciation] 57.6 (1992): 78-81.
Google Scholar

Ooka, Shohei. Hamuretto Nikki [Hamlet’s Diary]. Tokyo: Shincho-sha, 1980.
Google Scholar

Ooka, Shohei. Gendai Shosetsu Saho [The Etiquettes of Modern Novels]. Tokyo: Chikuma-shobo, 2014.
Google Scholar

Osanai, Kaoru. Engeki Shinsei [New Voice in Theatre]. Tokyo: Toun-do, 1912.
Google Scholar

Sekiya, Ichiro. “Kobayashi Hideo: Sono Teni no Yoso” [Hideo Kobayashi: The Modes of His Shift]. Kokugo to Kokubungaku [Japanese and Japanese Literature] 57.4 (1980): 38-52.
Google Scholar

Shakespeare, William. Hamlet: Revised Edition. Ed. Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor. London: Bloomsbury, 2016.
Google Scholar

Shiba, Ichiro. “‘Oferiya Ibun’ ron – Kakukoto no Hairi” [An Essay on Ophelia’s Will – The Paradox of Writing]. Bungaku [Literature] 4 (1993): 88-103.
Google Scholar

Shiga, Naoya. Kurodhiasu no Nikki [Claudius’s Diary]. Shiga Naoya Zenshu [The Complete Works of Naoya Shiga]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1999. 118-138.
Google Scholar

Shiga, Naoya. “Kurodhiasu no Nikki” nitsuite: Funaki Shigenobu-kun ni [On Claudius’s Diary: To Shigenobu Funaki]. Shiga Naoya Zenshu [The Complete Works of Naoya Shiga]. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1999. 407-411.
Google Scholar

Takahashi, Hideo. “Kaisetsu – Bungo no Tojo, Soshite Bunsho no Shutsugen” [Commentary – The Appearance of the Master Writer, and the Emergence of Writing]. Shiga Naoya Zenshu [The Complete Works of Naoya Shiga]. By Naoya Shiga. Vol. 2. Tokyo: Iwanami-shoten, 1999. 437-457.
Google Scholar

Downloads

Published

2020-06-30

How to Cite

Nakatani, M. (2020). The Shifting Appreciation of "Hamlet" in Its Japanese Novelizations: Hideo Kobayashi’s "Ophelia’s Will" and Its Revisions. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 21(36), 69–83. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.21.05

Issue

Section

Articles

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.