I Am a Cat
A satirical novel narrated by a pompous house cat.
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The work follows a supercilious feline narrator observing middle-class Japanese people, including the cat's owner Mr. Sneaze and his acquaintances.[1] The narrator's archaic personal pronoun wagahai became strongly associated with the book and is rarely used in real life.[2] Each chapter of the work functions as an independent piece, with almost all of them not requiring the others for comprehension.[3]
Making and release
After the publication of I Am a Cat, Sōseki's writing career took off, allowing him to become a full-time author.[4] The literary journal Hototogisu serialized the novel across ten separate installments when it first appeared.[3] Sōseki’s original plan was limited to composing the single short story that later became the opening chapter.[3] It was Hototogisu editor Takahama Kyoshi who convinced Sōseki to turn the story into a serial, and the writing style changed as each new installment came out.[3]
What the cited sources add
The narrator's preferred pronoun wagahai survives in fiction largely due to the book, used for arrogant anthropomorphized animals like Bowser in Mario games and Morgana in Persona 5.[2][5] The book is frequently assigned to Japanese schoolchildren, keeping wagahai in the national consciousness.[2][5]
References
- Wikipedia, "I Am a Cat" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: This is the spelling used in the abridged translation by Aiko Itō and Graeme Wilson. (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "I Am a Cat" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Mandelin, "Tricky Translations #4: 'I' & 'Me' in Japanese", Legends of Localization, June 1, 2019 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "I Am a Cat" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Nathan, "Soseki's Cat: A Quantum Leap for Japanese Literature", Red Circle, 10 September 2021 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Nathan, "Soseki's Cat: A Quantum Leap for Japanese Literature", Red Circle, 10 September 2021. facts only, no text reused. redcircleauthors.com
- Mandelin, "Tricky Translations #4: 'I' & 'Me' in Japanese", Legends of Localization, June 1, 2019. facts only, no text reused. legendsoflocalization.com
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article I Am a Cat (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: I Am a Cat (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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