Japanese Branch Report 2007

The eleventh annual convention of the George Eliot Fellowship of Japan was held at Chuo University on Saturday 24 November 2007. The morning session began with an opening address by Miwa Ohta (Chuo University). Four papers were presented in the morning; the first two were introduced and commented upon by Michiko Kurisu (Daito Bunka University), and the last two by Shigeko Tomita (Koshien University). The first paper was titled \u27Rethinking Adam Bede - Why Does No One Help Hetty?\u27 by Mayumi Fujita (Kwansei Gakuin University). Starting with a question about the severe treatment of Hetty, Ms. Fujita examined the moral implications of \u27comfort\u27 and \u27work\u27 in the novel. After pointing out the particular importance placed upon \u27work\u27 in the contemporary society of the time, she concluded that Hetty\u27s exclusion from the text was inevitable because unlike Adam and Dinah who derived comfort from their work, Hetty wished to lead a comfortable life without working for it. The second paper, \u27Bildungsroman and Letters: From Pride and Prejudice to Daniel Deronda\u27 was presented by Yuko Nakamura (Keio University). Ms. Nakamura compared George Eliot\u27s Daniel Deronda with Johann Wolfgang Goethe\u27s Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre and Jane Austen\u27s Pride and Prejudice, from the viewpoint of the Bildungsroman, using Bakhtin\u27s theory. Focusing on Gwendolen\u27s final letter to Daniel, she concluded that Gwendolen\u27s narrative showed the dynamism of the Bildungsroman. The third speaker, Shota Nakajima (Tokushima Bunri University) read a paper titled \u27Tryan\u27s Repentance - A Case of Terminal Care in Janet\u27s Repentance \u27. Mr. Nakajima proposed reading \u27Janet\u27s Repentance\u27 as a story of Tryan, who suffered from a sense of guilt over the death of a woman he once loved. He argued Tryan\u27s confession of his past to Janet enabled him to overcome his sense of guilt and devote the rest of his life to support Janet\u27s regeneration. With an emphasis upon the reciprocity of their cure, he concluded that the story presented an ideal case of terminal care