Occidental Ethnocentrism in the Footnotes of Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan

Sammanfattning

Although originally published in 1904, the stories in Lafcadio Hearn’s Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things have extended beyond their original temporal and spatial contexts and continue to be presented renewed in modern contexts, and Hearn’s relevance as a cultural mediator between Japan and the world is maintained in the modern day. This thesis looks at some examples of writing decisions to identify where and how an ethnocentrically Occidental perspective is made visible in the Kwaidan through exploration of the usage and roles of the paratextual device of footnotes. Of these decisions, the primary focus is on where footnotes are included and their function, as well as where they are excluded and how similar purposes are instead fulfilled through other literary techniques in text, or otherwise not undertaken at all. Such decisions are areas where processes of evaluation, prioritisation, and selection become visible. These decisions are influenced by an ideological framework that is constructed through hybrid discourse between individual and community within highly socio-historical and cultural contexts. In line with previous research but through a novel approach, the findings support the argument that Hearn’s writing choices were made through the utilisation of an individual framework that aligns in parts with Western perspectives, and that his writing decisions both express and uphold ethnocentrically Occidental norm-standards.