UNO CHIYO AND THE I NOVEL: THE GENRE KIKGAKI AS AN INNOVATION

Abstract

Uno Chiyo (1897-1996) made her debut in the 1920’s, when women writers started to enjoy more freedom and recognition than her predecessors from the Meiji Era. Back then the genre shishōsetsu or I novel, the result of the search for the truth by Japanese authors who, influenced by naturalism, dissected their private lives in detail, was at its peak. Many of Uno’s works were considered as I novel and the author became very popular airing her romantic relationships, hardly in keeping with moral values at that time. She also became renowned for writing about illicit romances.

Furthermore, the novels in which the author reproduces what the narrator told her, with which she revived the genre kikigaki, are very remarkable. Uno Chiyo surprised readers and critics with novels in which she adopted male voices and told their experiences as well as their reflections and most intimate feelings, describing them psychologically in depth.

In this article, we will analyze Uno Chiyo’s kikigaki novels (Confessions of love or Ohan, among others) from the perspective of the I novel, to highlight the contribution of this author to the genre and to the literature by women writers. Her kikigaki novels were innovative in many aspects. On the one hand, she developed a narrative technique that added authenticity to the story, what she also achieved with the psychological descriptions of the characters. On the other hand, reproducing the words of a male character was a way to defy the taboo that women writers had to restrict themselves to feminine topics.