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- Convenor:
-
Christina Laffin
(University of British Columbia)
Send message to Convenor
- Discussant:
-
Robert Khan
(SOAS, University of London )
- Stream:
- Pre-modern Literature
- Location:
- Torre B, Piso 1, Auditório 1
- Sessions:
- Saturday 2 September, -
Time zone: Europe/Lisbon
Short Abstract:
This panel discusses the ways in which gender appears as a defining cultural category in Japanese literary works from the 8th to 14th centuries. How is gendered space delineated in poetry, script, and travel narratives? Three position papers will be followed by a brief response and discussion.
Long Abstract:
This panel bring together four scholars working in Canada, France, Japan, and the UK to consider the relationship between space, gender, and writing. How has literary writing been shaped by the gendered spaces in which it was produced? How do the acts of writing, reading, or reciting define spaces as gendered?
Michel Vieillard-Baron examines the functions and roles that women played in the Poetry Contest of the Year 960 (Tentoku yonen dairi utaawase). What physical spaces did they occupy in the staging of the contest and how was the event a “gendered performance”? Drawing from kanbun and kana sources, this paper will consider the process by which the ceremony, renowned for its splendor in décor and costume, took place.
Christina Laffin reconsiders the problem of women and script through a sociohistorical overview of the places and spaces in which women engaged with kanbun and kanshi, specifically as educators, in court work, and in their religious lives. Her paper will attempt to foster a new discussion on women and script by placing greater focus on the particular social and political contexts in which women’s writing functioned at court in Heian and Kamakura Japan while drawing from new scholarship on “reading” and literacy.
Kimura Saeko examines border-crossing and gender in the diary Towazugatari (The Unrequested Tale, ca. 1306). The narrator, GoFukakusa Nijō, literally traverses space through the act of travel, while overcoming religious barriers for women through the production of her narrative. This paper will show how language and socioreligious space are intertwined in Nijō’s recounting of meetings with courtesans (yūjo) and shirabyōshi dancers, and in her retelling of stories associated with the temples and shrines she visits.
Discussant Robert Khan will open up the conversation on premodern space, gender, and text through a short response.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Saturday 2 September, 2017, -Paper short abstract:
This paper examines border-crossing and gender in the 14th-century diary Towazugatari. The travel narrative intertwines language and socioreligious space in its recounting of meetings with courtesans (yūjo) and shirabyōshi dancers and its retelling of legends related to temples and shrines.
Paper long abstract:
The gendering of premodern Japanese court society can be seen in dress, musical instruments, and styles of writing. Yet we also see examples of women and men transgressing these boundaries in literary works like the eleventh-century tale Torikaebaya monogatari, which depicts a woman's success while passing as a man. This presentation will examine Towazugatari (The Unrequested Tale, ca. 1306), a work encompassing a diary, travel narrative, and tale. I will focus on the ways the narrator, GoFukakusa Nijō, traverses space and overcomes socioreligious barriers through the production of her narrative.
The work opens in the restricted space of the court but shifts into a story of travel. As Nijō journeys through the provinces she depicts her encounters with courtesans (yūjo) and shirabyōshi dancers and recounts legends of female salvation and salvific figures. These episodes show how women such as Nijō may have formed their own interpretations of Buddhist tales or offered counternarratives.
I will also consider Nijō's use of typically male-gendered language in her response to the Retired Emperor GoFukakusa and show how she may be paralleling forms such as the "written pledges" known as kishōmon.
Paper short abstract:
This paper examines women and script through a sociohistorical overview of the places and spaces in which Heian and Kamakura court women engaged with kanbun and kanshi (Literary Sinitic prose and poetry) as educators, in court work, and in their religious lives.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation will reconsider the problem of women and script through a sociohistorical overview of the places and spaces in which Heian and Kamakura court women engaged with kanbun and kanshi (Literary Sinitic prose and poetry), specifically as educators, in court work, and in their religious lives.
The problem of women and script in premodern Japan is not new—scholarship by Jennifer Guest, Edward Kamens, Joshua Mostow, Ivo Smits, Atsuko Sakaki, and Tomiko Yoda has shed light on the issue. Yet our understanding of women and mana has tended to focus on the two central figures of Sei Shonagon (ca. 964-after 1027) and Murasaki Shikibu (ca. 973-ca. 1014). How did other women adhere to and transgress the so-called "mana taboo"? If women were avoiding overt displays of mana literacy then where do we see glimpses of their capabilities?
Recent scholarship on the Sinographic Cosmopolis and the role of script in East Asia has contributed to a burgeoning field of study. This paper will attempt to foster a new discussion on women and script by placing greater focus on the particular social and political contexts in which women's writing functioned at court in Heian and Kamakura Japan. I will also draw from recent scholarship on literacy to consider the significance of different forms of "reading."
Paper short abstract:
My presentation examines the role of women in this famous imperial contest involving great poets of the period. Analyzing <i>kanbun </i>and <i>kana </i>accounts, I define functions entrusted to women and physical spaces occupied, thus determining the extent to which the contest was a “gendered performance.”
Paper long abstract:
This famous contest at the imperial palace (<i>dairi</i>) brought together great poets of the period, men and women such as Mibu no Tadami (active 951-960) and Nakatsukasa (910?-after 989). Topics included both spring and summer, because the Thirtieth Day of the Third Month of 960 (Tentoku 4) occurred between the first two seasons, and different stages of love. The contest has come to represent a model of ceremonial splendor through its extensive preparations that produced extremely refined decor and participant costumes. The ceremony’s process has been described in several detailed accounts (<i>nikki</i>) by the Emperor himself and a member of the private chancellery (both written in <i>kanbun</i>), as well as three vernacular accounts (<i>kana nikki</i>). The contest is particularly well documented in journals and is characterized in literary history as the first such event accompanied by systematic notations of the judgement, in this case by Fujiwara no Saneyori (900-970).
My presentation examines the exact role played by women in this official event. I will focus on defining precisely which functions were entrusted to women and whether such functions differed from those conducted by men. I will also consider which physical places were granted to them in the subtle staging of this contest, thus determining to what extent the contest was a “gendered performance.”