Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium by Harper, Thomas

Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780231166584)

Vendor: Thomas Harper
Product type: Books
Format: Hardcover
$75.00
$75.00
$75.00
Subtotal: $75.00
Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium by Harper, Thomas

Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium

$75.00
Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium by Harper, Thomas

Reading the Tale of Genji: Sources from the First Millennium

$75.00
Format: Hardcover
Description
Description
x

The Tale of Genji, written one thousand years ago, is a masterpiece of Japanese literature, is often regarded as the best prose fiction in the language. Read, commented on, and reimagined by poets, scholars, dramatists, artists, and novelists, the tale has left a legacy as rich and reflective as the work itself.

This sourcebook is the most comprehensive record of the reception of The Tale of Genji to date. It presents a range of landmark texts relating to the work during its first millennium, almost all of which are translated into English for the first time. An introduction prefaces each set of documents, situating them within the tradition of Japanese literature and cultural history. These texts provide a fascinating glimpse into Japanese views of literature, poetry, imperial politics, and the place of art and women in society. Selections include an imagined conversation among court ladies gossiping about their favorite characters and scenes in Genji; learned exegetical commentary; a vigorous debate over the morality of Genji; and an impassioned defense of Genji's ability to enhance Japan's standing among the twentieth century's community of nations. Taken together, these documents reflect Japan's fraught history with vernacular texts, particularly those written by women.

Author: Thomas Harper
ISBN-10: 0231166583
ISBN-13: 9780231166584
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Language: English
Published: 12/01/2015
Pages: 632
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 2.15lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.40w x 1.80d

Review Citation(s):
Choice 06/01/2016
By Thomas Harper
By Thomas Harper
x

Thomas Harper is retired from the Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies at Leiden University. He is the translator of In Praise of Shadows and other essays by Tanizaki Jun'ichiro, and the author of a number of scholarly articles on the reception of The Tale of Genji.

Haruo Shirane, Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture at Columbia University, is the author and editor of numerous books on Japanese literature, including, most recently, Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons: Nature, Literature, and the Arts; Envisioning The Tale of Genji: Media, Gender, and Cultural Production; Traditional Japanese Literature: An Anthology, Beginnings to 1600; Early Modern Japanese Literature: An Anthology, 1600-1900; Classical Japanese: A Grammar; Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho; and A Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of The Tale of Genji.

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