芥川文学における食――「鼻」、「酒虫」、「芋粥」に登場した人物のイメージ形成との関わり――

Abstract

本論文旨在討論大正時期作家芥川龍之介如何運用「食」的手法描寫人物形象。在討論食物與文學的研究之中，芥川的「芋粥」經常成為討論的對象之一，然而觀察芥川初期文學，以「食」為素材的作品不只一件，細數之後相關作品至少有七件。本文所指的「食」並非單指食物，而是泛指與食物有關的種種事物，如進食的姿態、餐桌上的餐具、餐桌上的人際關係、人物對食物的慾望等等，與「食」相關的具體以及抽象的事物。在觀察芥川文學中與「食」相關的手法時，可發現食物的意象大量的被使用在人物描寫上。探討芥川如何運用「食」去呈現人物的心理與性格，又如何藉由人物形象傳達作品主題，不但可認識芥川塑造人物的手法，也深入解讀作品主題與創作理念。 序章中將大致說明芥川在文壇中的地位與特色，初期作品中以食為素材的手法與主題相關性，以及先行研究所解讀的「食」的寓意或人物形象。第一章、第二章、第三章將分別比較原文與改編的不同，再針對芥川改編之處找出食的意象與人物形象的關係。第四章則是藉由作品中共同加入的佛教素材解讀人物形象的寓意，同時研究創作背景對人物塑造的影響。 分析「鼻」、「酒蟲」、「芋粥」三位主人翁──內供、劉大成、五位可發現三人的飲食姿態皆呈現孤獨的色彩，孤獨導致三人分別對自尊心、酒、芋粥產生執念，進而出現利己行為，而這樣的形象與佛教中的餓鬼像相比之後有若干相應之處，主要在於餓鬼由慳貪所生，而慳貪與利己主義亦有相通之處，故描寫利己主義形象的人物時，有可能出現與餓鬼相似的形象。

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the way 'food' is used in describing the characters created by Ryunosuke Akutagawa, a writer during the Taisho period. Akutagawa's 'Imogayu' is one of the commonly tackled subjects in studies about food and literature. However, there were more than one early literary work and at least seven related pieces from Akutagawa that used 'food' as a source material. The term 'food' in this paper refers not only to food per se, but to everything related to food, such as body language associated with eating, tableware, interpersonal relationships, a character's desire for food, and other concrete and abstract matters related to 'food'. The 'food'-related writing technique in Akutagawa's literatures involves the images of food which are typically used in describing the characters. Understanding the way Akutagawa used 'food' to show the perspective and property of the characters, and how he conveyed a thematic setting through these characters, enabled us to learn about his technique of character shaping, and explore deeper into his works in order to interpret the theme and central idea. The prologue of this paper gives a general introduction of Akutagawa's position and distinguishing quality in the area of literature, as well as writing technique using food as a source material in his early works, relevance to the theme, interpretations or implied meaning of 'food' and characterization in previous studies. The first, second, and third chapters provide a comparison between the original and adapted versions, and identify the relationship between the image of food and the characters based on Akutagawa's adaptation. The fourth chapter presents the interpretation or implied meaning of characterization in several works that adopt Buddhism as a common source material, and explores the influence of Akutagawa's personal experience on characterization. In analyzing the three leading characters in Hana, Shu-Chu and Imogayu; namely, Nigu, Ryutaisei, and Goi, it was found that their body language related to eating demonstrated loneliness, which led to obsessions and struggles with self-esteem, liquor, and taro porridge, resulting in egoistic behavior. This type of behavior has several similarities with those of hungry ghosts described in Buddhism. Hungry ghosts are the consequence of negative karma due to greed and stinginess, which are akin to the concept of egoism. Therefore, images similar to hungry ghosts are present when describing egoistic characters.