THE SHORT STORY THE FOX BY KAFU NAGAI: AN ANALYSIS
THE SHORT STORY THE FOX BY KAFU NAGAI: AN ANALYSIS

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to analyse the short story The Fox by Kafu Nagai (2023) from a reader-response criticism approach. The paper offers a close reading of the short story by Nagai (2023) based on all the details mentioned in the story, which emphasizes the connection through the process of free associations made by the narrator, moving from the context provided by the natural world setting, from his indoor setting and reflections starting off from reading an experience from Turgenev's childhood. Turgenev's traumatic experience ties in with the narrator's own traumatic experience. In fact the narrator moves on, gradually, from lower-level traumatic experiences, starting from his fear of his father's garden – echoing the setting of Turgenev's own experience – and then climaxing in the main traumatic experience, that of seeing a fox killed and people killing chicken just like the fox, but in order to party, not to stop their hunger. The traumatic experiences lead both Turgenev and the narrator to reflect philosophically on the state of the world. Adults present to children the world in a certain way which contrasts with what the children actually witness. The Japanese culture provides the context for readers to reflect on humans' understanding and relationship to the natural world, as well as for the understanding of different perceptions on the fox: as a magical element, or as an occasion to prompt philosophical reflections or reactions of cruelty.

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