Description
Book SynopsisThis study explores women writers and gender portrayals at the Japanese Heian court and Heian memoirists creations of themselves in four texts: "Kagero Nikki", "Makura No Soshi", "Sarashina Nikki, and "Sanuki No Suke Nikki".
Trade Review"This book represents an exciting new stage in studies of classical Japanese literature, as scholars turn from the translation with brief introduction to studies that are the products of application of literary theory and original critical thinking. Sarra's work is a groundbreaking and original contribution to scholarship in the field of Japanese literature."—Laurel Rasplica Rodd, University of Colorado at Boulder
"In this sophisticated, readable study, Sarra explores the ways in which women authors exploited the potential of memoir to negotiate the limited roles assigned to them in Heian society. . . . Sarra's creative approach should have a dramatic impact on the future of this field of study." —
ChoiceTable of ContentsAbbreviations; 1. The staging of feminine self-disclosure; 2. The staging of feminine self-disclosure; 2. The engendering of the heroine in the Kagero nikki; 3. Fictions of desire in the Sarashina nikki; 4. The desire for fiction in the Sarashina nikki; 5. The problem of others in the Sanuki no suke nikki; 6. The poetics of voyeruism in The Pillow Book; Notes; Index.
