Description
Book SynopsisAmbiguous Bodies: Reading the Grotesque in the Japanese Setsuwa Tales explores the world of the extraordinary and strange in Japanese setsuwa tales and the mentalities informing them in terms of grotesque theory.
Trade Review"This volume will be a useful resource for students of Japanese history as well as Japanese literature." --
CHOICE"Li's lively translations and commentary serve effectively to demonstrate how the depiction of monsters embraced by the societies in question helped people in ancient and early medieval Japan make sense of the events of their time." -- Janet A. Walker * Rutgers University *
"
Ambiguous Bodies is a work of insight and erudition—a tremendously entertaining read. From sexy snakes and man-eating monkeys to dismembered bodies and demon lovers, Michelle Li evokes a strange and wonderful world of late-Heian and early-medieval tales, exploring it with grace, wit, and scholarly sophistication." -- R. Keller Kimbrough, University of Colorado * Boulder *
"This is a study of grotesque representations in Japanese
satsuma, popular short tales often about bizarre or extraordinary events informed by Buddhist moral sensibilities. The author, keenly aware of the interpretative difficulties of a genre whose definition is ambiguous, and provenance, audience, setting, and reception unclear, makes a stab at it through a close analysis of over one hundred tales from various collections from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries . . . [M]uch can be learned by this interesting contribution to medieval religious literary studies." -- Mark MacWilliams *
Religious Studies Review *
"I am thrilled to see
Ambiguous Bodies in print. The stories are hugely entertaining: comic, chilling, and racy, sometimes all at once. Li's thoughtful translations, however, and the gift of a global context for them, are what set this book apart. I can't wait to teach it." -- Charo D'Etcheverry * University of Wisconsin-Madison *
"
Ambiguous Bodies is an ambitious work that attempts to decode and make sense of the many comical, grotesque, and supernatural tales about fox-spirits, demons, dismembered bodies, anomalous sexual encounters, and the like that constitute the world of setsuwa . . . Li's book is useful contribution to sesuwa research and to debates about the applicability of Western models to the study of pre-modern Japanese texts." -- Eric C. Rath *
Monumenta Nipponica. *
"Li carefully weaves comparisons with the Western tradition, knowledge of Heian and Kakamura history, and even some psychological theory to provide context for skillfully translated tales. Both scholars and students will enjoy the book." -- Janet Goodwin *
Journal of Japanese Studies *
