Osamu Dazai writer

Osamu Dazai (Real name Shuji Tsushima)- one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. His work cannot be attributed to any particular genre. Many call him a classic of the "novel about himself" ("watakushi-sesetsu"), others talk about his proximity to romanticism, but despite the fact that both are undoubtedly present in his work, it is difficult to fit Osamu Dazai's prose into the narrow framework of one genre. "The white cloth of my soul is covered with some small signs. It's not easy for me to figure out what's written there myself. Like dozens of ants, crawling out of the sea of carcasses, with barely audible rustle, crawled and circled on this white canvas, and their vague footprints were imprinted on it. And if I could make out these dark writings, if I could read and understand them, I could explain what the meaning of my "duty" is. But it's too hard." Osamu Dazai, "Father" He was born in 1909. His father was a rich and influential man, and his mother was constantly ill. He and his siblings were raised by numerous babysitters. In the big rich house of Tsushima, the old feudal orders were strictly observed. The children were brought up in accordance with traditional ideas of family pride and honor. "I have firmly learned that it is better to die than to allow myself to be insulted," Dadzai recalled. He was the youngest son, who was not particularly considered by anyone, so from an early age he got used to feeling "superfluous". "My father was a busy man and hardly ever came home. And if he did, he did not communicate with the children. I was afraid of him," Dazai later wrote in his autobiographical novel "Memories" ("Omoide"). Dazai was depressed by the harsh and gloomy atmosphere of his native home. Feeling lonely, he became more and more isolated in his own world, the company of other people was frightening, it seemed hostile, but, diligently avoiding it, he simultaneously suffered from his loneliness, from his dissimilarity from others, he passionately wanted to be like everyone else, to live like everyone else. It was the childhood years that determined the formation of the personality and creativity of Dazai Osamu. No wonder he constantly addressed them in his works. "Often, since childhood, people called me lucky, but to me, on the contrary, it seemed that their life was much more prosperous, despite the fact that mine was just hellish" ("Confession of an "inferior" person") In 1923, Dadzai's father died. And he went to study at a secondary school. Already in his school years, the boy's interest in literary work was awakened. He published his first works in school magazines, which he published together with a group of fellow students. In 1929-1930, two of Dazai's brothers died one after the other: the younger — Reiji and the elder — Keiji, with whom he was especially close. Dazai felt this loss very hard. His difficult mental state was further aggravated by the brewing conflict with his relatives, who were dissatisfied with the fact that Dazai, who had always been the first student and the "pride of the family," began to neglect his studies, led a distracted lifestyle, and made friends with some dubious writers. The last straw in the family's cup of discontent was the news of his affair with geisha Beniko.Confused in his school affairs, frightened by rumors of increasing repression against members of the democratic movement, arrests and searches, driven to despair by the reproaches of relatives, feeling guilty all around, Dadzai tried to poison himself, but, fortunately, he was saved. In March 1930, having graduated from the lyceum with a sin in half, he left for Tokyo, where he entered the Faculty of French Literature at Teikoku University (by his own admission, not out of love for French literature, but solely because they accepted this faculty without exams). Moving to Tokyo increased his sense of his own inferiority — after all, in the capital, he was used to the idea of being chosen, looked at only as a provincial rich man. He wanted to move forward, he dreamed of sacrificing himself, living for other people. He got involved in various social movements, but it did not bring him satisfaction. He didn't like people at all and was focused only on himself. Constantly suffering from his own isolation, Dazai felt like he was on stage — hence the idea of buffoonery that permeated his work, especially in the early period. "All his actions are a conscious game," writes Okuno Takeo. "his whole life is a drama, the hero of which is an ideal person who lives for the sake of others, a drama that he himself wrote." And further: "Dazai's whole life can be considered the story of how he tried to love other people." Shortly after moving to Tokyo, Dazai met with the writer Ibuse Masuji, whom he considered his teacher and whose work he admired. This meeting marked the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Dazai's death. The reading circle of Dazai Osamu in those years was extremely large. He knew his way around the world perfectly. According to the Western European classics, the names of writers from various eras, from Dante to Cocteau, flash in his letters. He was also interested in Russian literature. I read Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy. He especially loved Chekhov and constantly returned to him at different periods of his life. Having deeply embraced Western literature, Dazai seemed to rediscover Japanese literature through it. In the autumn of 1930, Beniko (the real name of this woman is Oyama Hatsuye) came to Dazai in Tokyo, and he rented a room for her near the place where he lived. This caused a new outburst of outrage from the Tsushima family, and the head of the family, Dazai's older brother, Bunji, urgently left for Tokyo. The brothers came to a mutual agreement only after Dazai announced that he would be discharged from the family book. Having obtained a promise that his family would not interfere with their marriage, Dazai released Hatsuya and his brother to their homeland. Soon he received a notification of his discharge from the family book, and a few days later the engagement took place, after which Dazai made another attempt to commit suicide: he threw himself into the sea with a waitress from a bar on Ginza. He was saved, but the girl died. The reason for the new suicide attempt was not only the break with his family because of Hatsuye (in early 1931, Dazai still married her), a break that he experienced extremely painfully, but also growing disillusionment with communist ideas, in the democratic movement, which he joined again when he arrived in Tokyo. He was disgusted by the inhumane methods of conducting political struggle, the limitations of communist ideas, and the rigid party discipline that suppressed human individuality. At the same time, he perceived his apostasy as betrayal, he was tormented by a constant sense of guilt and a sense of his own doom. A painful inner discord led Dazai to realize the worthlessness, meaninglessness of his existence. He rushed from one extreme to the other, deciding that now the only possible way for him was self—destruction. He decided to write a will and die. Writing, Dazai couldn't stop. In February 1933, the Sunday edition of one of the Tokyo newspapers "Tookunippo" featured the story "Train" ("Rassia"), which won the first prize at a competition held by this newspaper. The story was signed by an unknown name — Dazai Osamu. This was the first publication of the young writer under a pseudonym, under which he entered the history of literature. Dazai was deeply convinced that literature was his destiny. For him, literature was primarily a means to justify his existence, a means to force society to recognize itself (and with it its generation), and to recognize him as he really was, without any embellishment — weak, painfully vulnerable, unable to feel the correctness and necessity of such immutable social ideas for all other people and concepts. In March of the same year, 1933, in the first issue of the magazine "Seal" ("Kaikhe") another story by Dazai appeared — "Clothes made of fish scales" ("Gefukuki"), and the literary community began talking about the birth of a new original talent. Soon the same magazine began publishing "Memoirs". Dazai became friends with many young writers (among them Dan Kazuo, Nakamura Jihei, Iba Harube, Kitamura Kenjiro, Kubo Ryuichi, Yamagishi Gaishi). In 1934, they began publishing their own magazine, which they called "Blue Flower" ("Aoihana"). "I, if I may say so, was burning with the last passion of my youth. Dancing on the eve of death. We got drunk together and beat stupid students. They loved nasty women like relatives... the Blue Flower magazine, dedicated to pure literature, was ready in December. But only one issue came out, after which our company broke up. Everyone was scared off by this aimless, bordering on insanity enthusiasm. It's just the three of us left. We were called the "three fools." But these three became lifelong friends" ("Eight Kinds of Tokyo"), "These three" are Yamagishi Gaishi, Dan Kazuo and Dazai Osamu. The Blue Flower magazine did not last long. Actually, only one issue of it was published, after which it merged with the magazine "Japanese Romanticism" ("Nihonromanha"), in which Sato Haruo, Hagiwara Sakutaro, Kamei Katsuichiro, Yasuda Yojuro, Edono Ryuzo collaborated. In March 1935, wanting to reassure his older brother, who was unhappy that his promise to graduate from university had not been fulfilled, Dazai tried to get a job at one of the capital's newspapers, but did not pass the competition. This setback has unsettled him again. Besides, his family life was completely out of order. The work on the collection "At Sunset of Days" has been completed, and, wanting to remain faithful to his plan, Dazai makes a new attempt to commit suicide. "My fortifications, built on such a perfect deception, were ready to fall. I realized that it was time to die. In the middle of March, I went to Kamakura alone. It was 1935. In the Kamakura Mountains, I tried to hang myself" ("Eight Views of Tokyo"). The suicide attempt failed again. After returning from Kamakura, Dazai was hospitalized with a severe attack of appendicitis. After the operation, he developed peritonitis and was in severe pain. He was constantly injected with drugs, and after leaving the hospital, Dazai could no longer do without them. While still in the hospital, he began writing the novel "Flowers of Buffoonery" ("Dokeno Hana"), which was published in the May issue of the magazine "Japanese Romanticism". Lying in the hospital, he learned that he had become famous. However, life in Funabashi was not so carefree. Shortly after leaving the hospital, it was discovered that Dazai needed constant doses of the drug. The amount that his brother sent him was barely enough to live on, and in order to buy drugs, he had to borrow from friends. His own life became valuable to him only in so far as it could become literature. "A person should write a work at least once in his life where he would not deceive himself," writes Dazai Osamu. And further: "For me, a writer is everything. And what he wrote is nothing, an empty place. No work can be higher than its creator. The so—called masterpieces in which the author allegedly "surpassed himself" are an empty fiction of readers" ("Will-o'-the-Wisps"). I must say that confessional literature has existed in Japan for centuries. Its first samples date back to the X–XI centuries, these are the diaries of Heian ladies. The "novel about myself", which became so popular in the second decade of the 20th century, combined the ancient traditions of Japanese prose with the traditions of the Western European confessional novel. One of the remarkable features of such literature is the special role of dialogue and monologue, if I may say so, the dialogic nature of monologue and monologue of dialogue. This is exactly what we see in almost all the works of Dazai Osamu. To penetrate into the depths of his consciousness and express in words the innermost movements of the human soul — Dazai saw the meaning of his life in this. In February 1936, at the insistence of Sato Haruo, Dazai went to the hospital hoping to recover from drug addiction, but the treatment did not give any results, and after spending about three weeks in the hospital, he returned home. On June 25 of the same year, Dazai's first collection "At Sunset of Days" was published. In October, three months after Dazai noisily celebrated the publication of his first collection, he, at the insistence of Ibuse Masuji, went to Musashino Psychiatric Hospital. After spending about a month there, he was indeed cured of drug addiction, but fell into a state of deep depression. After leaving the hospital, Dazai immediately began writing the story "Human Lost", in which for the first time the theme of the "lost man" arose, which reached full sound in one of his latest creations — "Confessions of an "inferior" person" ("Niigen shikkaku"). It was at this time that Dazai's fascination with Christianity dates back. While still in the hospital, he read the Gospel, and it struck him. Familiarity with Christian teaching played a very important role in his creative quest, giving a new direction to the thoughts that had long occupied him about the nature of sin, betrayal, and cowardice. Many of his works reflected painful reflections related to Christianity and the Bible. The famous critic Kamei Katsuichiro (1907-1966) calls the writer a "Japanese-style Protestant." Dadzai was not baptized and did not belong to any particular church, he built his relationship with God solely according to his own understanding. "But I was afraid of God. I did not believe in his love, but I was afraid of the inevitability of God's punishment. Faith, it seemed to me, exists so that a person humbly appears before the judgment of the Lord and is always ready to accept God's punishment with whips. I could believe in hell, but I didn't believe in the existence of heaven." The writing of the story "Human Lost" ends the first, early period in the work of Dazai Osamu. The works of this period are permeated with the sadness of "the beauty of adversity", "the beauty of defeats and failures". Dazai writes a lot about family relationships, constantly turning his thoughts to childhood and youth. Dissatisfied with the order prevailing in his native home, in some stories he constructs an ideal family life in his opinion: the hero of some of his stories (and the hero with whom he fully identifies himself) .