By Weller Antoine
Representation of women in literature regularly gives a perception of the state of society when it comes to gender equality and expectations; literature, as it is often agreed, is to some extent a representation of reality. The Caterpillar (1929), one of Edogawa Ranpo’s eroguro works, is a gruesome and disturbing tale that has yet not been associated with feminist literature. However, it presents sufficient features that, to some extent, show the condition of women during wartime and the expectations of the society they receive, as well as sexual liberation. Why is The Caterpillar a feminist story? This research will explore the different perceptions of what feminist literature is in order to prepare the necessary space for an analytical reading of The Caterpillar, and thereafter will apply those perceptions to Ranpo’s short story. Through this analysis, this research aims to create another reading on feminist literature and what it implies for the genre’s perspectives.
Feminist literature: what has been said and what should be said
There is no clear definition of what feminist literature is. Feminism is, according to Britannica’s definition, “the belief in social, economic, and political equality of the sexes” (2023). Thus, feminist literature should be literature that advocates for sexes’ equality through fiction or nonfiction written representation. Yet, this simple definition is not sufficient to understand to what extent feminist literature goes, and what it covers. Should all the stories that give a representation of women in society be considered feminist literature? Clearly not. One should consider two pillars for this understanding: intentions, and execution.
Writers’ intention to write (or not) a feminist story presents a debate. As stated by Barrett (1999, as cited in Gandolfo, 2008), a feminist author always has the wish to write a feminist story, thus the meaning of the story relies heavily on its writer rather than on the story itself. However, such definitions narrow feminist stories only to feminist writers, and thus limit the interpretation of some readings only to the interpretation the reader would do of the author. Such is not my intention in this research. According to Barthes’ theory of “death of the author” (1967), the analytical reading of a text should be done regardless of the author’s intention. This allows a broader understanding of feminist literature. In other words, as put by Tanaka (1988, p. 72), “does one have to choose the right stories” in order to give a feminist analysis? For a feminist literature analysis, Ranpo’s Caterpillar does not appear to be the most evident choice. Yet, because analysis would be conducted without taking into account the author’s intentions (and there is no doubt that Ranpo himself would not have qualified his own story as a feminist one), the text will be able to speak for itself. As stated above, execution is a major criterion of feminist literature analysis.
If we agree to give an analytical reading of a text, then we should pay more attention to the content of this text. Wording, description, character’s action… There are numerous clues for the reader to understand the meaning of a text. Flaubert did not have the intention of writing a feminist novel, yet his masterpiece Madame Bovary (1857) is often considered a feminist story. Rooks (2014) shows that Flaubert’s novel presented the conditions in which a woman’s role in society is exacerbated by the latter’s expectations. Emma Bovary is a character that, through her actions and her relations, breaks her chains from society, before being indirectly punished by this same society. Madame Bovary’s feminist analysis relies on the text content only, and not on its author’s intentions. As such, execution is the driver of the analysis. The same process will be applied to this research’s subject text.
Feminist literature, as a concept, presents a paradox: is a feminist novel an ‘author-based’ construction rather than a content exclusive expression? I argue that it is not. Rather, the execution is an end in itself, presenting enough clues on what a text might say. Therefore, such analysis will be applied to Ranpo’s Caterpillar in order to justify its appellation as a feminist story.
The Caterpillar: what makes it a feminist story
The Caterpillar is a disturbing tale in which a former soldier, Lieutenant Sunaga, has been so horribly armed by an explosion he has turned into a ‘human caterpillar’: the only remains of him are the bust and the trunk of the body. He is deaf and mute. Yet he is still alive. The story’s main character is the soldier’s wife, Tokiko. In the first scene of the story, she’s meeting with the General, her neighbor, who keeps praising the courage her husband had during the war. He also praises the wife, as she is fulfilling her duty well: taking good care of her husband, a hero. In the General’s mind, Tokiko is a good wife because she is doing what is expected of her. According to Grayzel (2014), “women’s emotional support of their men and families would be a crucial component of their contributions to the war effort” (p. 59). In this very first scene, Ranpo illustrates how Tokiko only exists through her role as the wife of a soldier. Nothing shows her existence as a unique individual, but only as a wife. Shortly after, in a flashback of when Tokiko discovers her husband’s condition at the hospital just after his return, the doctor keeps repeating how lucky Lieutenant Sunaga is to still be alive, how this is a miracle. The doctor has no words for Tokiko though, and it seems like she is not even present in this scene, as the doctor’s words could be addressed to anyone. Through the doctor’s behavior, Ranpo shows how the husband is much more important than the woman in society, and how women’s identity and role are only determined through the men’s actions and conditions.
Later in the story, however, we discover another face of Tokiko, as she is exploiting her husband’s disabilities to fulfill her sexual desires. In the scenes where Tokiko explores her desires, Ranpo takes the party of never describing the husband’s feelings; everything is felt and seen through Tokiko’s perspectives. It creates an opposition between Tokiko’s public and private face. Because of her husband’s condition, she is able to explore facets of her personality she has to hide in public. Through the character of Tokiko, Ranpo illustrates women’s sexual liberalization. As described by Wallhead (2023), an important feature of feminism is women’s capacity to self-determine their sexual desires as well as sexual values and norms. But her behavior is not condemned by the narration. The only discomfort the reader may feel is from the condition of the husband, not from the pleasure Tokiko enjoys.
The end of the story confirms this general idea that Tokiko is not an antagonist. By the end of The Caterpillar, the husband, now blind because Tokiko put out his eyes in a previous scene, escapes from the house and falls into a pit. Unlike the rest of the story, in this scene, the narrative process focuses on the husband rather than Tokiko. The words used to describe the actions belong to the pathetique and the grotesque lexical field, characterizing the ridiculousness of the husband’s condition. The Caterpillar ends when Tokiko, along with the General, discovers what happened to Sugana. Unlike other stories with a woman as a main character, like Madame Bovary, Tokiko is not ‘punished’ by the narrator: she is not dead, she is not suiciding. We can only assume she will continue her life normally. Ranpo’s tolerance of Tokiko definitely shows that she is not the antagonist of the story. Rather, one could interpret her husband as the burden women have to carry their whole life, until they are freed of them.
Edogawa Ranpo’s intentions in The Caterpillar were not to write a feminist story. In fact, the story has long been forbidden because it was seen as a criticism of the military. However, no one seems to have paid attention to the representation of women in the story. The analytical reading of The Caterpillar presents the condition of women and their sexuality through another scope, thus it can be said that it is a feminist story.
Conclusion
Feminist literature should not be narrowed only to feminist authors. By making the distinctions between intentions and execution, one would be able to gain a greater understanding of women’s condition and role in society as presented in literature. By ‘killing’ the author, I was able to show that Edogawa Ranpo’s The Caterpillar is a feminist story. The main character, Tokiko exists, in the eyes of society (represented by the doctor and the General), only through the heroism of her husband. However, because of her husband’s condition, she is able to discover new sexual horizons, which frees her as an individual. In the end, she is not condemned for her actions, rather she survives and is likely to continue her life normally.
Applying a neutral analysis to a reading, regardless of the author, allows us to deepen our understanding of literature and what it says about the society we live in. Since the MeToo movement, gender equality has gained more interest from individuals and groups who in the past did not pay attention to gender violence and inequalities. Allowing literature to be considered for what it is rather than what it should be is a crucial step towards social progress.
Reference List:
Barthes, R. (1967). “The Death of the Author,” Aspen 5-6.
Feminism, history and society, Britannica, britannica.com, updated October 23, 2023. https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism
Flaubert, G. (1857). Madame Bovary. Revue de Paris.
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Grayzel, S, R. (2014). “The role of women in war,” in The Oxford Illustrated History of the First World War, new edition, Oxford University Press, edited by Strachan, H. DOI: https://books.google.co.jp/books?hl=en&lr=&id=6TYeAwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA149&dq=the+role+of+women+during+wartime&ots=EGjKyBsT2s&sig=cunI8EdGTwfStAE8uwAv1ysthig&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
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Wallhead, E. (2023). “A Political Sexual Revolution: Sexual Autonomy in the British Women’s Liberation Movement in the 1970s and 1980s,” Twentieth Century British History 34, no. 2, 356-376, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/tcbh/hwad026