ヘンリー・アダムスの日本逍遙 : 神話と伝説との邂逅
スポンサーリンク
概要
- 論文の詳細を見る
There is a huge gap between Henry Adams as a scholar of American history who wrote the nine-volume History of the United States during the Administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and Adams as author of Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres. Before Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, he tries to be "logically accurate and habitually thorough." Adams also seems to find pleasure in debunking mythologized, idolized politicians like John Randolph of Roanoke who is "venerated as a descendant of Pocahontas" or George Washington. In Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres, however, he is going in the opposite direction: he repeatedly writes that he does not need accurate information, historical truth or facts. Adams tries to capture a sense of what the European Middle Ages had to say through its poetry, architecture, legends and myths, totally disregarding the socioeconomic conditions or geopolitics of those things. This essay covers Adams's three-month stay in Japan. Attempts are made to illuminate how Adams, who was obsessed with the idea of seeking facts and logic, became more open to mystical, mythical stories and artifacts about them. The microfilmed document called "Adams's Japan Expenses" contains not only the record of his monetary transactions, but also information about legendary stories and historical figures he came to know through his hosts and the artifacts while he stayed in Japan. Close examination of the information from this document as well as his letters and his travel companion, La Farge's description of their journeys clearly shows the validity of Shoichi Saeki's statement that it was in Asia that Adams underwent a transformation from an empirical historian to the literary writer who authored Mont-Saint -Michel and Chartres.
- 2002-03-31