From the “Social School” to “Realistic Honkaku”:The evolution of Keigo Higashino’s mystery fiction style and Japan’s social transformation
从“社会派”到“写实本格”——东野圭吾推理小说风格的流变与日本社会转型

摘要

东野圭吾是日本当代推理小说中最具转型意识的作家之一。他的创作生涯与日本社会从泡沫经济巅峰到“失去的三十年”的漫长转型恰好重合，形成了一条从模仿本格到转向社会派、再到确立“写实本格”的清晰路径。本文以叙事伦理为核心框架，考察了东野圭吾风格演变与社会转型之间的内在联系。他的每一次风格蜕变，都不是单纯的美学选择，而是对特定社会危机的文学回应。前期本格推理对应的是泡沫经济时代的乐观主义与解谜趣味，中期社会派转向折射出泡沫破裂后个体的生存焦虑，后期“写实本格”的确立，则意味着推理小说完成了从解谜娱乐到社会批判的范式转换。东野圭吾的“写实本格”不是本格和社会派的简单嫁接，而是一种以创伤叙事为内核、以动机追问为驱力的辩证综合，它把推理小说的形式创新和日本社会转型期的伦理困境熔铸在了一起。

Abstract

Keigo Higashino is one of the most transformation-conscious contemporary Japanese mystery writers. His literary career coincides with Japan’s protracted transition from the zenith of the bubble economy to the so called “Lost Thirty Years,” tracing a clear trajectory that moves from imitative Honkaku to a turn toward the Social School, and finally to the establishment of “Realistic Honkaku.” Adopting narrative ethics as its core analytical framework, this paper examines the intrinsic relationship between Higashino’s stylistic evolution and the social transformation of Japan. Each of his stylistic metamorphoses is not merely an aesthetic choice, but rather a literary response to specific social crises. The early Honkaku phase corresponds to the optimism and puzzle centered entertainment of the bubble economy era; the mid career shift toward the Social School reflects the existential anxieties of individuals in the aftermath of the bubble’s collapse; and the later consolidation of “Realistic Honkaku” signifies a paradigm shift in mystery fiction from puzzle solving diversion to social critique. Higashino’s “Realistic Honkaku” is not a simple grafting of Honkaku onto the Social School, but a dialectical synthesis that takes trauma narrative as its core and motive driven inquiry as its driving force—a synthesis that fuses formal innovation in mystery fiction with the ethical dilemmas confronting Japanese society during its period of transition.