Craving for the absolute: The sublime and the tragic in Mishima Yukio\u27s theatrical works

My aim in this thesis is to reevaluate the aesthetics of Mishima Yukio through his theatrical works. Mishima is famous for his skillfully-constructed prose narratives and plays, as well as infamous for his spectacular ritual suicide by seppuku. In contrast to the widely-held perception that Mishima committed an anachronism in pursuing the long-lost legacy of the samurai code, I argue that his works, as well as his performative activities based on his ideal of “ bun bu ryôdô” (a combination of literary and the martial arts), can be understood through his attempts to unite his aesthetics and his ethics. Mishima\u27s dialectics of “bun bu ryôdô” correspond to the notion of “the sublime.” I align the sublime with masochism, naming the combination “the masochistic sublime,” in order to delve deeply into the complex, even ambivalent, nature of Mishima\u27s aesthetics. I also propose the hypothesis that Mishima\u27s notion of bun bu ryôdô has been produced under the influence of the Nietzschean notion of tragedy. Mishima\u27s adaptations of the Nietzschean idea of tragedy to his theatrical works mark his bold attempt to highlight the tragic elements in a Nietzschean sense, or more specifically, the impossibility of understanding between poetry and politics. Chapter 1 is a close analysis of the essential aspects of Mishima\u27s aesthetics—the notion of the masochistic sublime and the Nietzschean idea of the tragic—through the investigation of his prose works, Kamen no kokuhaku and Taiyô to tetsu. In Chapter 2, I explore Kindai nôgakushû focusing on the theme of Nietzschean tragedy, specifically, the contrast between the Apollonian and the Dionysian, and the function of music as the source of the Nietzschean “will to power.” In my discussion of Sado kôshaku fujin in Chapter 3, I apply the notion of the masochistic sublime in order to shed light on the problematic aesthetics that Mishima demonstrates through the protagonist, Renee, and other female characters. In Chapter 4, I examine Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki, not only its theme but also its structure, drawing on my previous analyses of Mishima\u27s aesthetics in order to unmask Mishima\u27s secret wish to unite his aesthetics and his ethics