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- Convenor:
-
Thomas McAuley
(University of Sheffield)
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- Stream:
- Pre-modern Literature
- Location:
- Torre B, Piso 2, Sala T7
- Sessions:
- Thursday 31 August, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel explores intertextuality in waka poetry and its impact and effect, through the analysis of references to Chinese tales in poetry, poems' use to create multi-layered effects in prose contexts and, use of evidence in poetry competition judgements and appeals.
Long Abstract:
The extent to which intertextuality is a key feature of both the composition, interpretation and appreciation of waka poetry is well-known. Premodern Japanese poets composed their work incorporating elements from an extremely wide range of other texts: earlier Japanese poems, Chinese poems, Japanese prose texts and tales, and Chinese prose texts and tales, to name but a few. These intertextual references served to expand and develop the range of possible meanings which readers and critics could derive from individual poems and enhance their emotional impact. Simultaneously, waka themselves were used intertextually to punctuate and develop prose contexts and enable authors to add additional resonance and redolence to their work.
This panel brings together three papers linked by the intertextual connections of waka with other works or material, in an exploration of how these connections enabled readers of both poetry and prose to expand their understanding of authors' intentions, increase their appreciation of both types of text, and develop more informed judgements regarding the quality - and qualities - of individual works.
First, Juan provides an initial focus on how additional meanings and effects could be incorporated into individual poems through references to other works. This will be done through a consideration of the varying types of intertextual relations in kankoji waka - poems alluding to elements from Chinese tales.
Second, Nakada shifts the discussion to the impact poetic references could have on prose contexts. This will be done through an examination of the utilisation of poetry in Makura no sōshi, considering the multi-layered aspects of meaning which were added to the prose of the zuihitsu by the inclusion of poems, excerpts from poems and poetic vocabulary.
Finally, McAuley considers how intertextual and, to some extent, extra-textual, features played a key role in the evaluation of a poem's meaning, and in the determination of its literary value. This will be done through an analysis of the critical dialogue between Fujiwara no Shunzei, the judge, and Kenshō, one of the participants, in the Poetry Contest in 600 Rounds.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 31 August, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This paper will consider the textual relationships in kankoji waka - poems referring to Chinese tales - arguing that these contributed to the generation and changing of poems' meanings, outlining a four-part division of these intertextual functions.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will consider kankoji waka - poems referring to Chinese tales - and argue that it is essential to comprehend the role played by the Chinese text in the interpretation of such works. In general, a textual clue reminds readers of a tale, and allows them to supplement their interpretation and appreciation of a poem through a grasp of the semantic relations between the two texts.
However, this paper will propose a broad, four-part division of the intertextual functions at work in kankoji waka: first, the use of expressions in the poem which recall the Chinese tale based on the poet having a shared awareness of the tale with the reader. For example, the poetic expression aki no chigiri ('an autumn vow') suggests, 'on the Seventh day of the Seventh Month in the Hall of Longevity, when whispering to himself alone at midnight' from the Song of Eternal Woe.
Second, rather than a reference to the Chinese tale being present in the poem, a correspondence of emotion between the texts being created through the use of headnotes mentioning works such as the Song of Eternal Woe, naturally incorporating them into the poem's world.
Third, poems where there are significant differences in association and awareness between readers, due to the complexity of the reception of the texts of the tale in Japan; and, finally, poems where words from a tale are only assimilated on a surface level and its deeper meanings are abstracted.
This paper will consider how the textual relationships at work in kankoji waka, combined with the active participation of readers, contributed to the generation and changing of poems' meanings, through an analysis of poems from the late classical and early mediaeval periods.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines the use of poetry, poem excerpts and poetic vocabulary in Makura no sōshi to create multi-layered expressions in the prose text. The focus will be an analysis of the section 'After the Regent had departed this life'.
Paper long abstract:
It is well-known that the creation of multi-layered expressions is a major feature of the composition of Japanese waka poetry. This is done mainly through techniques such as allusive variation and kakekotoba, and the use of pre-existing poetic vocabulary, all of which serve to incorporate the world of prior poetry, and the imagery conveyed by the earlier vocabulary, into the newly composed poem.
Prose works, too, create multi-layered worlds through a similar incorporation of poems, excerpts from poems, and poetic vocabulary into their texts. As there is no limit to the length of prose texts, however, it is possible to use a variety of poetic material in a single scene. This creates a multi-layered world for the scene, which possesses a mulitplicity of irreconcilable images, as if diffused through shards of glass, rather than coalescing around a single image, as would be the case in a waka poem.
There is already a significant amount of research on this type of usage of poetry in Genji monogatari, but in many respects this aspect of Makura no sōshi has yet to be investigated.
This paper will attempt to fill this gap by examining how the quality of the prose in Makura no sōshi is changed and made multi-layered through an examination of the poetic vocabulary, poems and excerpts used in one specific passage, 'After the Regent had departed this life' (136). This scene describes how the grass in the Empress' garden has been left to grow wild, and when asked about it, Teishi replies through Lady Saishō that this is because she 'wishes to see the dew upon it'. While the situation itself is desolate, it possesses an elegant air provided by the combination of a number of pre-existing expressions from Man'yōshū, Kokinshū and Gosenshū which are referenced in the course of the prose text.
Paper short abstract:
Inter- and extra-textual evidence reveals how value was assigned to individual poems. This paper considers a contentious round in Roppyakuban uta'awase (Spring III: 22 on Frogs) to analyse the assertion of differing visions of poetic value and quality.
Paper long abstract:
The importance of the poetry competition (uta'awase) as a forum for poetic composition and critical debate in Japan is well-known. They were sites of collaborative criticism, where teams would provide assessments of each other's poems, before leaving the final judgement to an experienced senior poet. Judgements were reached on the bases of the key criteria for uta'awase poetry: adherence to the essential meaning of the set topic, appropriate formality, and ease of aural apprehension, and could range from brief remarks of approbation to detailed criticisms. However, it became increasingly common for participants who disagreed with judgements against their poems to produce 'Appeals' (Chinjō), in which they produced their own evidence and argued their poem's case. An analysis of poetry competition judgements and appeals, therefore, has much to tell us about the formation of formation of critical opinion, the weight given to different types of intertextual and extra-textual evidence, and how aesthetic value was assigned to individual poems.
The 'Poetry Contest in Six Hundred Rounds' (Roppyakuban uta'awase) (1193-94) is the largest extant poetry competition judged by a single judge, Fujiwara no Shunzei. As such, taken together his judgements form one of the largest and most detailed statements of critical appreciation of poetry of the time. The value of the competition is increased, however, by the existence of an extensive Chinjō written by one of the participants, Kenshō, in which he provides detailed rebuttals of Shunzei's negative judgements of many of his poems.
This paper will conduct an analysis of one particularly contentious round in the competition: Spring III: 22 on Frogs. Shunzei is highly critical of Kenshō's poem in this round on the grounds of his understanding of diction, grasp of the topic and resulting lack of formality. Kenshō responds with detailed poetic and real-world evidence to negate this judgement. Through the interplay between these two poets we can see the assertion of differing visions of poetic value and quality - visions which would become increasingly entrenched as poetic opinion became increasingly polarised in the thirteenth century.