My Individualism

by Natsume Sōseki · 1914

Sōseki lectures the students of the Peers' School on how he escaped years of anxiety as an English literature scholar by discovering 'self-centredness' and trusting his own judgment over borrowed Western opinion. He pairs the story of his own breakdown with a plea for individual freedom that carries a duty to respect others, and for power and wealth used with responsibility.

Books mentioned in My Individualism (1)

• Theory of Literature by Natsume Sōseki: “In the end I had to give up the enterprise I had begun halfway. The Theory of Literature that I wrote is less a monument to it than the corpse of a failure, and a deformed corpse at that. [auto-translated]”