The Meiji Political Novel: A Brief Survey

Extract

From a purely objective point of view, the study of the political novel in any period of history is useful because of the inherent value of that particular type of novel – portrayal of the political ideology of its time and presentation of its authors' political opinions. This is especially true with reference to the political novel in Japan's Meiji era. The Restoration had shifted the balance of power; Western influence was strong; Japan was emerging from her self-imposed seclusion. In the first flush of her breakaway from previous restraints – and before new ones could be devised and stringently enforced – Japan's political thought as expressed in the literary vehicle specifically designed for it presents perhaps a truer index of the feelings of the literate classes than does the governmental mechanism which was evolved at that time, inasmuch as one of the avowed purposes of a novel is to appeal to its audience, a point not included in Japanese governmental tradition. This being the general trend in the Far East, the most important medium – even the only medium – through which the articulate could register their objections and their own thoughts has been literature. Certainly one of the most important causes for the Western belief that the Oriental is phlegmatic and mysterious is that so little study has been made of his writings, the only possible channel for his outpourings.