Paper short abstract:

Yoshiya Nobuko’s "Aru orokashiki mono no hanashi” is a lesbian novel that is characterized by its abrupt, tragic ending. This paper considers the novel by examining the author-reader interaction and argues that the ending of the novel is Yoshiya’s critical response to readers’ incomprehension.

Paper long abstract:

In 1925, Yoshiya Nobuko, a lesbian writer and a representative of the “shojyo shosetsu” (girl’s fiction) genre, launched her private magazine “Kuroshobi” (Black Rose). This monthly magazine, targeted at her fans, features Yoshiya's short stories, articles, and a readers' column. "Aru orokashiki mono no hanashi” (A Tale of a Certain Foolish Person) is a full-length novel about female same-sex love, serialized from the first to the last issue.

"Aru orokashiki mono no hanashi”, which depicts teacher-student same-sex love, is characterized by its abrupt ending. The story begins when a female high school teacher, who identifies as a congenital homosexual, falls in love with one of her female students. Their relationship grows closer as the novel goes on, but it ends abruptly with a tragic episode in which the student is murdered. Because of its abrupt ending, the novel is considered conservative, valuing sentimentalism rather than sexual fulfillment and refusing to protest the contemporary view that female same-sex love is ephemera.

This perspective, however, overlooks Yoshiya's active negotiations with readers during the writing process. Throughout the serialization, the magazine's readers' forum published reader comments every month, providing Yoshiya with a diverse array of responses; And these reader responses,would undoubtedly have a significant impact on Yoshiya's writing. I analyze "Aru orokashiki mono no hanashi" by focusing on author-reader negotiation and interpret the novel's tragic ending as Yoshiya's critical response towards unsympathetic readers.

In the first half of the novel, Yoshiya develops radical arguments about the legitimacy of same-sex love and the difficulties of surviving as a lesbian through the protagonist‘s monologue, but readers seem to have been not concerned with Yoshiya’s argument. Some viewed the novel pornographically as Yoshiya’s personal experience, while others read it as a romantic girl’s fiction. In response to the reader's lack of sympathy, Yoshiya refrained from revealing the privacy of her homosexuality, while bringing the novel to a tragic ending. By doing so, she not only protests against the pornographic gaze but also criticizes readers for indulging in romantic fiction.