Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji

by Richard Bowring

• ISBN13: 9780521832083
• ISBN10: 052183208X
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-10-27
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, written in Japan in the early eleventh century, is acknowledged to be one of Japan's greatest literary achievements, and sometimes thought of as the world's first novel. It is also one of the earliest major works to be written by a woman. This introduction to the Genji sketches the cultural background, offers detailed analysis of the text, discusses matters of language and style and ends by tracing the history of its reception through nine centuries of cultural change. This book will be useful for survey courses in Japanese and World Literature. Because The Tale of Genji is so long, it is often not possible for students to read it in its entirety and this book will therefore be used not only as an introduction, but also as a guide through the difficult and convoluted plot.

Table of Contents

Preface

Genji chapter titles

Genealogical chart

Part I. The Cultural Background: 1. Politics

2. Murasaki Shikibu

3. Religion

4. Language

5. A grammar of sexual relations

6. History and fiction

Part II. The Tale of Genji: 7. Sexual politics (chapters 1-12)

8. Penance and restitution (chapters 12-21)

9. A prospect of flowers (chapters 22-33)

10. Dangerous obsessions (chapters 34-41)

11. A passion for self-destruction (chapters 42-54)

Part III. Language and style: 12. The narrator's presence

13. Kashiwagi's tortured mind

14. Equivocal narration

15. Poetry in prose

16. Translations

Part IV. Impact, Influence and Reception: 17. Early textual history

18. Murasaki in hell

19. Medieval commentaries

20. Tokugawa readings

21. Modern readings

Guide to further reading.