Between Structure and Action: Sub-Imperial Subjectivity and the Silenced Other in The Human Chair

Abstract

This paper, based on Edogawa Rampo's novel "The Human Chair", combined with the postcolonial theory and Foucault's disciplined society theory, discusses how the literary style of "ero Guro nansensu" participates in the construction of the ideology of the Japanese sub-imperial position. This paper points out that previous studies on this type of literature mostly focused on consumerism and body politics, ignoring its deep functions in the viewing mechanism and the construction of imperial power. Through the close reading of the text, the paper divides the main characters of the novel into protagonist A and protagonist B. It analyzes them as a symbolic structural subject and action subject, revealing that the state is not a single actor, but completes the maintenance of the ruling logic through the coordination between structure and action. The three key plot turns in the article -- the motivation of B turning into a chair, the rejection of foreign bodies, and the fictionalization of the letter -- are interpreted as metaphors for the construction of national legitimacy, anxiety and repair. Finally, the paper suggests that "The Human Chair" not only reveals the mechanism of cultural imitation and exclusion under Japan's sub-imperial position, It also demonstrates how the modern state achieves the structural exclusion of the other.