Event

Ironically, the prose works that are generally taken to inaugurate the Japanese literary tradition have rarely been analyzed as literary texts.  Western-language scholarship generally treats the mythic narratives of the Kojiki (712) and the Nihon shoki (720)—along with the surviving portions of the early- to mid-8th century fudoki gazetteers—as proto-historical sources, evidence for religious beliefs and folkways, or as material for comparative mythological analysis.  But surprisingly little attention has been paid to how these works—or at least certain key parts of them—were deliberately shaped to entertain and delight their readers.  By examining significant details in episodes from the first book of the Kojiki, this talk sketches out a framework for considering these early narratives as works of literature.
* CEAS Humanities Colloquium Series