Description
Book SynopsisA familiar, beloved, and yet misunderstood character in the Japanese folktale tradition is the animal-woman, an earthly animal that assumes the form of a female human. In order to articulate the characteristics that make Japanese Animal-Wife tales unique, this trailblazing book
Japanese Animal-Wife Tales: Narrating Gender Reality in Japanese Folktale Tradition challenges long-held characterizations of them in folklore scholarship. By re-examining the gender-specific behaviors of both the animal-woman and her human spouse, the book recovers the sociocultural and historical contexts that underlay their behaviors to demonstrate the actual gender characteristics that shaped the original Japanese Animal-Wife tales, highlighting the assertive, rather than naïve, personality of women in early Japanese folktale tradition. This new approach to the study of Japanese folktales and culture will interest researchers and students in a variety of fields, including Japanese studies, comparative
Trade Review"Japanese Animal-Wife Tales is an instructive book particularly for cross-cultural analysis of the themes of animal-wife tales in Japan, Scotland, and Korea. It is recommended to anyone who is interested in animal-wife folktales and folktales in general." (Noriko T. Reider, Western Folklore 75.2)
Table of ContentsContents: Demystifying Misconstrued Genders in Japanese Animal-Wife Tales – The Theoretical Characteristics of Japanese Animal-Wife Tales – The Search for the Main Theme of Japanese Animal-Wife Tales – Conclusion: Narrating Gender Reality behind Japanese Folktale Tradition.
