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Nogami Yaeko’s Adaptations of Austen Novels: Allegorizing Women’s Bodies

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British Romanticism in Asia

Part of the book series: Asia-Pacific and Literature in English ((APLE))

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Abstract

Jane Austen frequently satirized the social position of women as a commodified or animalized existence by referring to meat. It is therefore revealing to see animal metaphors in Nogami Yaeko’s Machiko (1931), the first adaptation of Pride and Prejudice (1813) to be adapted into Japanese, as well as in Nogami’s later novels Aru-Onna-no-Hanashi and Kaijinmaru (1922). This article shows how, possibly encouraged to write creatively by her mentor Natsume Sōseki, Nogami blended her idealized image of Western women, Elizabeth Bennet, and her commentary on New Women in Japan. This essay argues that a careful reading of Nogami’s novels reveals not only her profound interest in Austen’s representation of women’s bodies, but also her active engagement in the contemporary medical debate introduced in a feminist magazine, Seitō, to which Nogami contributed many translations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of English Studies, Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

    Kimiyo Ogawa

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  1. Kimiyo Ogawa
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nagoya University, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

    Alex Watson

  2. Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan

    Laurence Williams

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Ogawa, K. (2019). Nogami Yaeko’s Adaptations of Austen Novels: Allegorizing Women’s Bodies. In: Watson, A., Williams, L. (eds) British Romanticism in Asia. Asia-Pacific and Literature in English. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3001-8_12

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