For Friday: Last Akutagawa Stories, “The Story of a Head That Fell Off” and “Horse Legs”

The “Egypt” group should answer TWO of these questions, as well as members of the “China” group that haven’t answered any questions for Akutagawa yet.

Q1: How does Japanese society respond to Hanzaburō’s disappearance and his strange diaries? Consider, especially, the newspaper articles written about his “insanity” and his brief reappearance at his wife’s home.

Q2: What do you think Major Kimura means in “The story of a Head That Fell Off,” when he says, “It is important—even necessary—for us to become acutely aware of the fact that we can’t trust ourselves” (119)? Is this the true moral of the story? Or yet another unreliable narrator imposing his view on the reader?

Q3: Despite the level of satire, “Horse Legs” is also a kind of modern-day fable or fairy-tale. What might be the metaphorical significance of a normal man, in a normal job, who suddenly dies and returns to life with horse legs? How might this represent something ‘real’ in our own world—or a condition someone might actually have or feel?

Q4: When the Chinese soldier, Xiao-er, looks back on his life on the moment of death, “he recognized all too well the ugliness that had filled it” (116). What ugliness do you think he (and Akutagawa) is referring to, and how might this connect with previous stories we’ve discussed?