La rappresentazione del disturbo depressivo nella narrativa di Kobayashi Eriko

This essay analyses the evolution of literary representations of psycho-emotional disorders in contemporary Japanese literature, paying particular attention to scien- tific terminology. From the concept of disease of the nerves (shinkeibyō), adopted by San’yūtei Enchō (1839-1900) in 1900, the description of depressive disorders had changed, abandoning folkloric representations and adopting scientific para- meters. Through the analysis of specific texts, such as Kono jigoku wo ikiru no da and Watashi wa nani mo warukunai by Kobayashi Eriko (1977), I am going to highlight how those issues are represented in the novels, considering that the au- thor has suffered herself from a depressive disorder. At the same time, I will un- derline how her usage of objective and scientific language has the strategic intention of avoiding possible connotations of stigmatization.