I read a Japanese novel by Soseki Natsume, “I Am a Cat”. It is a story for people who want to know the atmosphere of literature in late Meiji period of Japan. It also acts as a comical satire of human society. In this mean, it has a potential for both temporal and timeless theme of humanity, acting on socio-political and literary-historical meanings. The master of the cat, Kushami is modeled on Soseki Natsume himself and it also includes elements for autobiographical materials. The cat is cynical as every cat species and trifling matters the surrounding people chitchat are funny and meaningless. The story is sincere because of its objective view from non-human being, and meaningless chitchats silently show satire nature of the view from the cat. What are not described so well is the lives of common people in the age, as is also the case for most of the novels in the same age worldwide.
From the viewpoint of structuralism the structure of the novel is simple and it flows fluently, as is mostly the case for the novels of Soseki Natsume. From the viewpoint of post-structuralism there is not so much to say. There are many intertextual elements for the literature of the same age or past.
Overall, it acts as a break for serious readings and is enjoyable in the sense.
