三島由紀夫『潮騒』論

Shiosai(The Sound of Waves) is well known as one of Yukio Mishima's masterpieces, and generally loved by myriads of readers. On the other hand, it is also regarded as an idiosyncratic opus differing in its main themes from his other literary works, and Mishima himself admitted this fact as well.

In this paper, while attention is paid to Mishima's remarks, the peculiarity and significance of "Shiosai" is analyzed in terms of gender/sexuality and narration. Mishima used to depict alienation and a sense of the resistance of the society towards homosexuality in his previous other works; but in "Shiosai" he not only delineates heterosexuality, but also expresses it as a kind of love that is surrounded by the society and should be blessed as well. By searching for the logic of community that acts as the background of the story and the issue of sex/gender between male and female protagonists, the method adopted by the narrator to construct and present the story of heterosexuality which is encircled by society is examined, and the position of "Shiosai" in Mishima's oeuvre is then clarified.