I Am a Cat — Natsume Soseki

I Am a Cat is a satirical novel written in 1905 1906 by Natsume Sōseki about Japanese society during the Meiji period 1868 1912 particularly the uneasy mix of Western culture and Japanese traditions Sōseki s title Wagahai wa Neko de Aru uses a very high register phrasing more appropriate to a nobleman conveying grandiloquence and self importance This is somewhat ironic since the speaker an anthropomorphized domestic cat is a regular house cat of a teacher and not of a high ranking noble as the manner of speech suggests The book was first published in ten installments in the literary journal Hototogisu At first Sōseki intended only to write the short story that constitutes the first chapter of I Am a Cat However Takahama Kyoshi one of the editors of Hototogisu persuaded Sōseki to serialize the work which evolved stylistically as the installments progressed Nearly all the chapters can stand alone as discrete works Tanıtım Bülteninden