Week 7 reading questions

Let's start by thinking about the four main characters in Tanizaki's novel:

1. How does the professor conform to and challenge these male archetypes: The pater familias? The white collar, upper-middle-class professional? The middle-age man past his sexual prime? Masochist? Sexual pervert?

2. What about Ikuko? How does she fit these female archetypes: Housewife? Mother? Traditional woman? Femme fatale?

3. And Toshiko? How does she match up to these categories: Shôjo (innocent young girl)? Daughter? Modern girl? Femme fatale? Nutcase?

4. How would you categorize Kimura? Does he fit any archetypes?

Here are some more general questions about important themes and topics that emerge in The Key:

1. How does the novel depict the institution of marriage, sexual relations between a married couple, and the social roles of a husband and wife?

2. What does the novel have to say about the institution of the nuclear family? How specifically does it depict the relationship between parents and children? What does the novel suggest about motherhood?

3. As is often the case in the work Tanizaki, sexuality occupies prominent position in The Key. Does the novel implicitly or explicitly differentiate "normal" sexuality from "abnormal" sexuality? How does the novel represent the the connection between emotion and desire? Is there a moral component to its treatment of sex?

4. Up until now, the works we've read in this class have largely concentrated on the sexual and romantic desires of young people. The Key shifts the focus to a middle-aged couple. Does this age difference affect the representation of love and desire? How?

5. I've chosen this work to serve as an idiosyncratic variation of the age-old tradition of the love suicide. What is the connection between death and desire? How does the novel treat the Professor's death wish: perverted obsession, pathetic desire, commitment to a romantic ideal, or something else? Should we read his death as a suicide or a homicide?

6. Despite its sometimes claustrophobic atmosphere, does the novel offer a general commentary on postwar Japanese society? How does the juxtaposition of traditional and modern play out in its portrait of postwar Japan?

7. If you had to categorize this novel, how would you describe it: Tragedy? Satirical comedy? Social commentary? Highbrow pulp fiction? Does the novel play with these labels?

8. If you had to compare The Key to any of the earlier works that we've read in this class, which one would you choose? Why?

Critics and scholars have unanimously praised Tanizaki's innovative use of the diary format in The Key. Here are some questions to consider when thinking about the form of the narrative:

1. How does the narrative exploit formal features that we associate with the diary: Time frame? Point of view/perspective? Relation between narrator and author? Reliability of content? Public versus private?

2. Tanizaki complicates the structure of the novel with his clever employment of battling diaries. How does this affect our experience of the narration? What kind of line does it draw between narrated and unnarrated voices? How does it shape our interpretation of gaps between the entries? How does this device deviate from our expectations for the diary format?

3. A related question. Despite their central roles in the plot, the structure of the narrative prevents Toshiko and Kimura from expressing their versions of the events. How does this affect your response to them and their actions?

4. Ken Ito focuses on the function of writing in his essay about The Key. Think about some of the possible ways that writing functions in this narrative: e.g., as a means of manipulation, as a means of self expression, as a source of pleasure in its own right, as a medium of disclosure and communication, and as a medium of performance and duplicity.