Interpretation of the Japanese Great White Tower Novel from the Perspective of Cognitive Poetics
In: African and Asian studies: AAS, Band 20, Heft 3, S. 276-290
ISSN: 1569-2108
As the representative of postwar Japanese female writers, Yamazaki Toyoko expressed the theme from her unique perspective, sharp language and realistic techniques, revealing the contradictions and conflicts in Japanese society. Yamazaki constructs the conceptual metaphor of "the system is the white tower" running through the novel, so that readers could gradually change their cognition and realize an unknown confrontation and competition between good and evil in the hospital. The Great White Tower revolves around the medical insider and the dispute between doctors and patients. The characters in the novel are real and full, which well shows the struggle for professional titles, the erosion of human nature. Based on this, from the perspective of cognitive poetics, this paper mainly uses conceptual metaphor, archetypal category theory and event framework theory to interpret the novel and analyzes the characters of novels, explores the themes of novels and reveals the explanatory power of cognitive poetics to literary novels. Through the dynamic construction of the character image and conflict escalation, it is obvious that money-power politics caused by rapid development of capitalist economy, authority worship and excessive power caused by the deep-rooted hierarchical culture also further triggered the pursuit of professors' authority and the struggle between different interest groups.