Tra femminismo e disturbi mentali: l’influenza dell’ideologia femminista sulla scrittura di Kobayashi Eriko

Kobayashi Eriko 小林エリコ (1977-) is a contemporary Japanese au- thor whose literary career began in 2016 with the publication of manga, novels and postings on her blog. These were purely autobiographical and mostly dealt with mental disorder, its description, origin, treat- ment, and the degree of social acceptance of individuals suffering from them. In her novels she devotes special attention to major depressive disorder, which she herself developed and of which she considers her dysfunctional relationship with family members to be the primary cause. Following the emergence of that illness, she has several times attempted suicide, even as she was unable to grasp the real reason for her malaise and compulsion. In her first novel, Kono jigoku wo ikiru no da この地獄を生きるのだ (Living This Hell, 2017), Eriko identifies the cause of her malaise in her tendency to overreact to problems that would otherwise be rather common (such as stressful work, the lack of money and underdeveloped relationships with friends). Only follow- ing the discovery of feminism, she could identify the actual causes be- hind her disorder and thus begin a process of acceptance and progres- sive healing. This is especially evident in her penultimate novel, Watashi ga feminizumu wo shiranakatta koro 私がフェミニズムを知らな かった頃 (When I didn’t know feminism, 2021). The paper aims to show how Kobayashi Eriko’s encounter with the feminist movement not only helped her in the treatment of her mental illness, but also rad- ically changed her views on it as reflected in her writings. This will be argued with particular reference to the evolution of ideas, thoughts and actions in the literary characters she has created in her novels.