Abstract:We must reconsider the answer to the question “what possibilities exist now for the history of Japanese literature and the history of Japanese language” in order to construct “a literary history necessary for survival” for students who will enter the society via diverse ways(some of them might become scholars). We will discover an inclusive and temporally broader knowledge of “history” not only in the field of literature but also,with no question,in culture,politics and thought as well. The discussion of literary history necessitates situating cultural history and intellectual history in the context. From this perspective,Katō Shūichi’s History of Japanese Literature:The First Thousand Years sets up a model for the writing of literary history.This article analyzes Shiga Naoya’s short story “Manatsuru” in an attempt to discover a new significance for the expression “literature is history” from an angle other than the framework of “the history of literature.” Words that record a thing or an event in fictional writing are nothing but dots in a giant network of “language.” If we investigate every word that forms sentences,we could discover numerous narratives of events that are formed of words lurking behind them. This implies that words possess a historicity and literary works include history. That is to say,literary history is the history itself that exists in the contemporary era in which we now breathe and live.
收起