Paper short abstract:

This paper will present the results of an investigation, using critical discourse analysis, into gender-based differences in treatment of poetic topics in the waka anthology, Eikyū hyakushu (1117), to determine whether there is evidence that men and women approached topics differently.

Paper long abstract:

This paper will present the results of an investigation, using critical discourse analysis, into gender-based differences in treatment of poetic topics (dai) in the waka poetry anthology, Eikyū yo nen hyakushu (1117). This collection contains 701 poems on one hundred topics by seven poets, five men and two women.

By this point in waka history, topic was a significant category which provided strictures for poets on suitable diction (kotoba) and conception (kokoro) to be used in the production of their poems. The faithfulness with which poets adhered to these strictures rather than by any demonstrations of innovation or individuality often determined whether a poem was judged to be of good quality.

Nevertheless, men and women view the world differently, with those views shaped by the socio-cultural expectations of types of behaviour and knowledge associated with different genders and roles. For the aristocracy in Heian Japan, these expectations for men and women were rigid, and everyday life and activities differed widely. This would suggest that it would be unusual if male and female poets treated topics identically and differences between men and women’s poetry have been acknowledged since the dawn of waka poetics.

Through an analysis of the diction, and thus the associated conception (imagery and emotional tone) used by the male and female poets in Eikyū hyakushu this paper will determine the extent to which there is evidence for systematic gender-based differences in the treatment of poetic topics, what these are and thus provide a concrete basis for wider analysis of the waka canon.