“The Snow-White Shawl”
“The Snow-White Shawl”
Tuberculosis in Meiji and Taishō Japan
The next chapter presents the literary mythopoeia surrounding tuberculosis in both Euro-American literature and its Japanese counterpart in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Both of these literary traditions, the so-called “Western” and the Japanese, evince analogous stigmas against and stereotypes of the disease and its victims, including eroticism and revulsion, touching upon sensuality, insanity, and dishonor. Similarly, as the etiology of the disease was made clearer with notions of germ theory, these stigmas altered, but still remained prejudicial and incorrect nonetheless. Nevertheless, this misinformation shaped how the Japanese public considered tuberculosis, including by those suffering from the disease themselves.
Keywords: Euro-American literature, Japanese literature, Stigma, Etiology
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