by Routledge

    The monumental Japanese fictional narrative known as The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) appeared during the first decade or so of the eleventh century, CE. This vast narrative—which spans three-quarters of a century, and is made up of fifty-four chapters and 795 poems—has been attributed to a woman known only as Murasaki Shikibu. It has often been celebrated as ‘the world’s oldest novel’.

    The Tale of Genji has generated a huge scholarly literature, and this new collection, co-published by Routledge and Edition Synapse, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to help researchers and students navigate and make sense of it. The collection is made up of three volumes which bring together the best and most influential canonical and cutting-edge research.

    The first volume (‘Cultures of Reading The Tale of Genji’) assembles the key work in narratology, aesthetics, and poetics. A narrative that can—and has—been read primarily as a ‘romance’ has much to say about the history, culture, and society of its time, and Volume II (‘Sexual Politics in The Tale of Genji’) is organized around often contested themes such as gender, genre, and politics. The scholarship in the final volume (‘The Tale of Genji and its Others’), meanwhile, gathers the best work on topics including Noh, visual art, ‘China’, and later literature.

    With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its historical and intellectual context, The Tale of Genji is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

    PROVISIONAL CONTENTS

    Volume I: Cultures of Reading The Tale of Genji

    1. Richard Bowring, ‘The Cultural Background’, Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 1–21.

    2. Richard Bowring, ‘Language and Style’, Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji (Cambridge University Press, 1998), pp. 53–75.

    3. Aileen Gatten, ‘The Order of The Early Chapters in The Genji Monogatari’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1981, 41, 1, 5–46.

    5. Haruo Shirane, ‘Kingship and Transgression’, Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’ (Stanford University Press, 1987), pp. 3–16.

    6. H. Richard Okada, ‘Narrating the Private’, Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 183–96.

    7. Haruo Shirane, ‘Flowering Fortunes’, Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The Tale of Genji’ (Stanford University Press, 1987), pp. 24–40.

    8. H. Richard Okada, ‘Substitutions and Incidental Narrating: "Wakamurasaki"’, Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 250–65.

    9. Royall Tyler, ‘Lady Murasaki’s Erotic Entertainment: The Early Chapters of The Tale of Genji’, East Asian History, 1996, 12, 65–78.

    10. Noguchi Takehiko, ‘The Substratum Constituting Monogatari: Prose Structure and Narrative in the Genji Monogatari’, in Earl Miner (ed.), Principles of Classical Japanese Literature (Princeton University Press, 1985), pp. 130–50.

    11. Amanda Stinchecum, ‘Who Tells the Tale?’, Monumenta Nipponica, 1980, 35, 4, 375–403.

    12. H. Richard Okada, ‘A Figure of Narrating: Tamakazura’, Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 214–31.

    13. Aileen Gatten, ‘A Wisp of Smoke: Scent and Character in The Tale of Genji’, Monumenta Nipponica, 1977, 32, 1, 35–48.

    14. Haruo Shirane, ‘The Lyric Mode and the Lament’, Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’ (Stanford University Press, 1987), pp. 120–32.

    15. Esperanza Ramirez-Christensen, ‘Operation of the Lyrical Mode’, in Andrew Pekarik (ed.), Ukifune: Love in the Tale of Genji (Columbia University Press, 1982), pp. 21–61.

    16. Haruo Shirane, ‘Repetition and Difference: Ukifune’, Bridge of Dreams: A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’ (Stanford University Press, 1987), pp. 131–66.

    17. Edwin A. Cranston, ‘Murasaki’s Art of Fiction’, Japan Quarterly, 1971, 18, 2, 207–13.

    18. Tomiko Yoda, ‘Politics and Poetics in The Tale of Genji’, Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Construction of Japanese Modernity (Duke University Press, 2004), pp. 111–45.

    Volume II: Gender, Sexuality, Women, and Men in The Tale of Genji

    19. Tomiko Yoda, ‘Women and the Emergence of Heian Kana Writing’, Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Construction of Japanese Modernity (Duke University Press, 2004), pp. 81–110.

    20. H. Richard Okada, ‘Situating the "Feminine Hand"’, Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 159–82.

    21. Norma Field, ‘Three Heroines and the Making of the Hero’, The Splendor of Longing in The Tale of Genji (Princeton University Press, 1987), pp. 18–85.

    22. H. Richard Okada, ‘Feminine Representation and Critique: "Hahakigi"’, Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1991), pp. 197–213.

    23. H. Mack Horton, ‘They Also Serve: Ladies-in-Waiting in The Tale of Genji’, in Edward Kamens (ed.), Approaches to Teaching Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji (The Modern Language Association of America, 1993), pp. 95–107.

    24. Doris Bargen, ‘Enter Mono No Ke: Spirit Possession in Cultural Context’, A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji (University of Hawaii Press, 1997), pp. 1–31.

    25. Doris Bargen, ‘Aoi’, A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji (University of Hawaii Press, 1997), pp. 76–108.

    26. Doris Bargen, ‘The Third Princess’, A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji (University of Hawaii Press, 1997), pp. 150–87.

    27. Doris Bargen, ‘Exit Mono No Ke: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji’, A Woman’s Weapon: Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji (University of Hawaii Press, 1997), pp. 245–50.

    28. Margaret H. Childs, ‘The Value of Vulnerability: Sexual Coercion and the Nature of Love in Japanese Court Literature’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 1999, 58, 4, 1059–79.

    29. Paul Gordon Schalow, ‘The Tale of Genji: Two Cranes Flying Wing to Wing’, A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2007), pp. 116–62.

    31. Paul Gordon Schalow, ‘The Uji Chapters: Maidens of the Bridge’, A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2007), pp. 163–87.

    32. Haruki Ii, ‘Didactic Readings of The Tale of Genji: Politics and Women’s Education’, in Haruo Shirane (ed.), Envisioning The Tale of Genji (Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 157–70.

    33. H. Richard Okada, ‘Speaking For: Surrogates and The Tale of Genji’, in Barbara Stevenson and Cynthia Ho (eds.), Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays on Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women Writers (Palgrave, 2000), pp. 5–27.

    Volume III: The Tale of Genji and its Others

    34. David Pollock, ‘The Informing Image: "China" in Genji Monogatari’, Monumenta Nipponica, 1985, 38, 4, 359–76.

    35. Janet Goff, ‘The Reception of the Genji in the Middle Ages’, Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji: The Art of Illusion in Fifteen Classical Plays (Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 14–29.

    36. Janet Goff, ‘The Genji and the Noh’, Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji: The Art of Illusion in Fifteen Classical Plays (Princeton University Press, 1991), pp. 45–61.

    37. Yamanaka Reiko, ‘The Tale of Genji and the Development of Female-Spirit No’, in Haruo Shirane (ed.), Envisioning The Tale of Genji (Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 80–100.

    38. Yoshiaki Shimizu, ‘The Rite of Writing: Thoughts on the Oldest Genji Text’, RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics, 1988, 16, 54–63.

    39. Yukio Lippit, ‘Figure and Fracture: The Tale of Genji Scrolls’, in Haruo Shirane (ed.), Envisioning The Tale of Genji (Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 49–80.

    40. Masako Watanabe, ‘Narrative Framing in the "Tale of Genji Scroll": Interior Space in the Compartmentalized Emaki’, Artibus Asiae, 1998, 58, 1/2, 115–45.

    41. Sadakazu Fujii, ‘The Relationship Between the Romance and Religious Observances: Genji Monogatari as Myth’, Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 1982, 9, 2–3, 127–46.

    42. Yoshiko Kobayashi, ‘The Function of Music in The Tale of Genji’, Journal of Comparative Literature, 1990, 33, 196–210.

    43. William McCullough, ‘Japanese Marriage Institutions in the Heian Period’, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, 1967, 27, 103–67.

    44. Peter Nickerson, ‘The Meaning of Matrilocality: Kinship, Property, and Politics in Mid-Heian’, Monumenta Nipponica, 1993, 48, 4, 429–68.

    45. Patrick Caddeau, ‘Heian Fantasies: Nationalism and Nostalgia in the Reading of Genji’, Appraising Genji: Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in the Age of the Last Samurai (State University of New York Press, 2006), pp. 9–26.

    46. Thomas J. Harper, ‘Medieval Interpretations of Mursaki Shikibu’s "Defense of the Art of Fiction"’, Studies on Japanese Culture, Vol. 1 (eds. Saburo Ota and Rikutaro Fukuda) (Japan PEN Club, 1973), pp. 56–61.

    47. Masaaki Kobayashi, ‘Wartime Japan, the Imperial Line, and The Tale of Genji’, in Haruo Shirane (ed.), Envisioning the Tale of Genji (Columbia University Press, 2008), pp. 289–99.

    48. Charles Dodson, ‘A Different Kind of Hero: The Tale of Genji and the American Reader’, in Michael Thomas Carroll (ed.), No Small World: Visions and Revisions of World Literature (National Council of Teachers of English, 1996), pp. 179–88.

    49. Virginia Woolf, ‘The Tale of Genji’, The Essays of Virginia Woolf, Vol. 4 (1925–8) (Harcourt, Inc., 1994), pp. 264–9.

    50. Masao Miyoshi, ‘Translation as Interpretation’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 1979, 38, 2, 299–302.

    Biography

    Richard H. Okada is Professor of Japanese Literature at Princeton University, USA. His published work includes Figures of Resistance: Language, Poetry and Narrating in the "Tale of Genji" and Other Mid-Heian Texts (Duke University Press, 1992) (9780822311850).