生老病死をみつめて : タイ現代小説『時』への一考察
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概要
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This paper is aimed at investigating certain features in the works of a contemporary Thai novelist, Chart Kopchitti (b. 1954). Chart's works present the search for 'authentic existence' by rejecting 'inauthentic existence' which can be considered as self-deception. In this point it can be said that his works deal with the theme: Existentialism. Chart's perception of existentialism appears clearly in his very successful novel: The Judgement (1981), which follows "mainstream" western existentialists in presenting existentialist ideals. However, in the later phase, of his work, The Time (1993), which treats aging and death ; he did not present mere western existential ideas. Instead, Chart's existentialism has rather developed into a unique concept.In The judgement, the author depicted an aspect of hell caused by a 'self-others dichotomy', as the core to story, which is a very existential theme. In the story, the hero falls into a social surplus (de trop) in the Sartrian sense, without doing any wrongs. He suffers from 'the existential distresses' in the world of "hell is others". However in The Time, a different development is given. At the beginning of this work, the protagonists, the aged are presented by the author as a social surplus (de trop) as seen in The Judgement. But, unlike the previous one, what Chart has described here differs from "existential distresses". When we examine the details, we can see that the theme of The Time could be a 'self-others non-dichotomy'. And we can consider this novel as a work which seeks to find a solution beyond existentialism. Furthermore, interestingly, its conception might coincide with, what we call, 'buddhistischen Existenzialismus' which was discussed by Yoshinori Takeuchi, the Japanese scholar. In this paper, I will focus on the thought development of the writer from The Judgment to The Time, and shed light on the writer's conception of birth, aging, illness, and death as seen in the latter work, which goes beyond the limitation of a simple Eastern or Western concept. This is a 'Thai' version of a dialogue between East and West. This paper will also provide a new interpretation of The Time.
- 大阪外国語大学の論文