Nathaniel Clark – A&E Editor

nuc5002@psu.edu

Osamu Dazai’s masterpiece “No Longer Human” is a depressing expression of one’s mental psyche. 

Originally released for Japanese audiences in 1948, “No Longer Human” took a decade to get a Western English translation. Pushed by American-born Japanese scholar Donald Keene, the first translation offered minor alterations to Dazai’s original work. However, Keene did change the novel’s name. In a direct translation, “Ningen Shikkaku” [the title’s transliteration] directly translates into “Disqualified From Being Human.” The novel did receive another English translation in 2018 by Mark Gibeau titled “A Shameful Life.” Nonetheless, Keene’s translation has stayed as the recommended English version. 

“No Longer Human” is told in the first person from the perspective of the protagonist form of Ōba Yōzō. Through telling Yōzō’s life story, Dazai is indirectly crafting his autobiography. Since the novel’s release in 1948, many in the literary community have noted the connections between Dazai and his fictionalized persona Yōzō. While many may call this his autobiography, “No Longer Human” is considered semi-autobiographical since the characters in the book are all fictional.

“No Longer Human” is told in the form of notebooks left by Yōzō. In his own self-description, the protagonist is a troubled man incapable of revealing his true self to others, and who, instead, maintains a facade of hollow jovialness The work is composed of three chapters, or notebooks, which chronicle Yōzō’s life from his early childhood to his late twenties.

Throughout the notebook, the novel presents various recurring themes in Dazai’s life, including suicide, social alienation, and depression. In a somber connection to his creation, Dazai also attempted suicide a total of five times in his lifetime. 

Shortly after the release of “No Longer Human,” Dazai ultimately succeeded in taking his own life with his lover at the time, Tomie Yamazaki. Their deaths were ruled a double suicide via drowning. Taking this ending into account, many literary scholars believe the book to have been his will. This theory conflicts with the novel Dazai was working on at the time. Titled “Goodbye,” the novel was left unfinished due to Dazai’s passing. This version is readily available but does not offer a proper ending.

If there is something more peculiar about “No Longer Human” than its backstory, it is the novel’s overall success. Even with the disturbing subject matter, “No Longer Human” ranks as the second-best-selling novel ever in Japan. Additionally, various live-action, anime, and manga adaptations have been created. However, many of these adaptations alter the content of Dazai’s classic. The most well-known, and most thorough, of these adaptations, was led by horror manga artist Junji Ito. Released in 2017, said adaptation mixes Dazai’s literary stylings with Ito’s iconic artistic dread. 

While dense in literary importance, “No Longer Human” is an uncompromising achievement of autobiographical definition.