Aspectos modernos e antigos na ética de Botchan (senhorzinho) de Natsume Sôseki

Abstract

The experience of a young teacher in a school of Matsuyama City, in Ehime Province, is the focus of Botchan. We can see aspects of Sôseki’s life when he was a teacher at that school，main background for the story，and his experience with a Japanese governmental scholarship in England, when Japan begins to be interested in Western knowledge. Based on Ino, Levinás and Bakhtin's propositions, we intend to present the ethics and the sense of responsibility in this romance that emphasizes otherness through the confront of the Japanese mind，sublimed by the sense of justice with a false morality as well as greed, and the contrasts between the things that are or are not prestigious in a country receptive to Europe and United States. The confrontation with the other, which is at the same time one，s own pair, becames evident as a target to reflection in the Japanese people lives molded in a way to resemble that westernized development.