Changes in “Art,” “Literature,” and “Novels” from 1910 to 1945 ：Analyzing Japanese Modern Literary Criticism Using Natural Language Processing

The purpose of this paper is to use natural language processing to explore how the terms “art,” “literature,” and “novel” were employed during the period from 1910 to 1945. In Japanese literary criticism, “art” served as the central analytical concept in the 1910s and 1920s. From the 1920s onwards, “literature” began to be used in a similar context as “art,” while the term “novel” gradually gained prominence. In the early 1930s, the meanings of “art” and “literature” became closer, but after 1935, the usage of “art” declined. Conversely, “novel” began to be used as an analytical concept more closely aligned with “literature.”The term “art” was primarily used by critics active during the late Meiji and Taisho periods. Proletarian writers considered “art” and “literature” to be nearly synonymous, while dismissing “novel” as a form of popular entertainment. However, with the novel debate as a catalyst, writers began to use “novel” as a term representing legitimate literary works, and this usage was subsequently adopted by a new generation of critics who emerged in the 1930s.