Title: The First Person Narrative and Modern Self-shaping in Mori Ogai’s The Dancing Girl

Abstract: Mori Ogai’s The Dancing Girl tells the story of a modern individual’s self-awareness, self loss, and eventual return to the national system through the sentimental first person narrative. In terms of narrative, the love confession narrative in the novel is seen as a discourse behavior originating from the awakening of modern individual spirit, expressing an implicit criticism of the state ideology that suppresses individual subjectivity. In terms of character portrayal and spatial setting, the novel utilizes a character akin to trickster or clown and a contrasting spatial setup to establish its initiation structure. In this sense, the space and character setting of the novel fully reveal the inner conflict and identity anxiety of intellectuals during the Meiji period, deeply reflect the spiritual constraints of national ethics on modern Japanese intellectuals, and embody a highly integrated blend of romantic lyricism and realistic depiction, giving the novel itself a strong sense of modern introspection.

Keywords:: Mori Ogai, The Dancing Girl, first person narrative, self-shaping

Author: Liliang Lan, Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Henan University, Kaifeng, Henan, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2024.03.006