A Comparative Study of the I-novel and Personalized Writing from the Perspective of Female Body Narrative: Centering on Private Life and Futon

Abstract

In recent years, female body narrative has emerged as a significant critical perspective for examining the relationship between gender and literary expression. Both personalized writing in Chinese literature and the Japanese I-novel emphasize realism and the depiction of individual inner experience, making them particularly suitable for comparative research on representations of the female body. This paper focuses on Private Life by Chen Ran and Futon by Tayama Katai, conducting a comparative textual analysis from the perspective of female body narrative. By examining narrative perspective, modes of bodily representation, and their cultural implications, this study explores both the divergences and convergences between personalized writing and the I-novel. The analysis demonstrates that personalized writing enables women to articulate bodily experience directly through first-person narration, foregrounding a critical awareness of patriarchal structures. In contrast, within the I-novel, the female body primarily functions as a symbolic projection of the male narrator’s inner world. This study aims to contribute a new comparative perspective to research on female body narratives in Chinese and Japanese literature.