Diary of a Mad Old Man is not only a key work of Japan’s Aesthetic Movement but also exemplifies what Giogio Agamben calls “form-of-life,” or vitality. Born during Japan’s Westernization in the Meiji era (1868-1912), Tanizaki was initially fascinated by Western culture and modernism, later shaping his writing around erotic obsessions, distorted sexuality, sado-masochism, the destructive pursuit of desires, and the tension between modern Westernization and traditional Japanese culture in the twentieth century. This essay suggests that, in Diary of a Mad Old Man, the aging diarist Tokusuke Utugi situates himself in a zone of indetermination between impotence and sex as well as life and death, revealing his form-of-life via his diary, which lays bare his happiness and sense of autarchy. This essay mainly uses Giorgio Agamben’s idea of form-of-life to explore how Tokusuke dismantles the opposition between impotence and sex as well as life and death, positioning himself at their midpoint. Additionally, Jean Baudrillard’s fatal strategy of reversibility is applied to explore how Tokusuke subverts the impotence-sex dichotomy. Finally, this essay will examine how the diary form reveals Tokusuke’s form-of-life, exposing his autonomy and pursuit of ecstacy. By interpreting Diary of a Mad Old Man through Agamben’s form-of-life and Baudrillard’s fatal strategy of reversibility, this essay concludes that Tanizaki neither portrays aging as mere decline nor glorifies masculine pleasure in old age. Instead, Diary of a Mad Old Man suggests liberation from rigid oppositions—rejecting the reduction of individuals to bare life and instead opening up new possibilities for existence.

Authors:
Tzu-Ting Huang, National Chengchi University, Taiwan

About the Presenter(s)
Tzu-Ting Huang is a PhD student at the Department of English, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. Her research interests are nineteenth-century British literature, modern Japanese literature, and medical literature.

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