The course is divided into two modules: A) a general introduction to the grammar of classical Japanese. B) Readings from a literary text selected from Heian or Kamakura literature.
- PIGEOT, Jacqueline, Manuel de japonais classique – Initiation au bungo, Paris, Langues & Monde/L’Asiathéque, 1998.
- SHIRANE, Haruo, Classical Japanese. A Grammar, New York, Columbia University Press, 2005.
Module B)
a) Primary sources:
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- Bunka shûreishû, in Kaifûsô, Bunka shûreishû, Honchômonzui, a cura di Kojima Noriyuki, Iwanami shoten (“Nihon koten bungaku taikei 69”), Tôkyô, 1964.
- Gosen wakashû, a cura di Katagiri Yôichi, Iwanami Shoten (“Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 6”), Tôkyô, 1990.
- Kokin wakashû, a cura di Katagiri Yôichi, Sôeisha (“Zentaiyaku Nihon Koten Shinsho”), Tôkyô, 1980.
- Komachishû, a cura di Muroki Hideyuki, in Komachishû / Narihirashû / Henjôshû / Soseishû / Iseshû / Sarumarushû, a cura di Muroki Hideyuki, Takano Haruyo, Suzuki Hiroko, Meiji Shoin (“Waka Bungaku Taikei 18”), Tôkyô, 1998.
- Komachishû (rufubon e ihon), in Katagiri, Yôichi, Ono Komachi tsuiseki: Komachishû ni yoru Komachi setsuwa no kenkyû, Tôkyô, Kasama shoin, 19932.
- Man’yôshû, a cura di Takagi Ichinosuke, Gomi Tomohide e Ôno Susumu, Iwanami Shoten (“Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei 4-7”), Tokyô, 1957-62.
b) Suggested readings
- BIRRELL, Anne (a cura di), New Songs from a Jade Terrace. An Anthology of Early Chinese Love Poetry, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, New York, 1986.
- CRANSTON, Edwin A. (a cura di), A Waka Anthology. Volume One: The Gem Glistening Cup, Stanford UP, Stanford ,1993.
- CRANSTON,, Edwin A. (a cura di), A Waka Anthology. Volume Two: Grasses of Remembrance, Stanford UP, Stanford, 2 voll., 2006.
- GODEL, Armen e KANO, Koichi (a cura di), Visages cachés, sentiments mêlés – Le livre poétique de Komachi, le cinq nô du cycle Komachi, le dit de Komachi par Ono no Komachi et autres, Gallimard, Paris, 1997.
- FRACCARO, Francesca, Appunti sull’imitazione di Ono no Komachi nel Gosenshû e oltre, in Un’isola a Levante. Studi in onore di Adriana Boscaro, a cura di Luisa Bienati e Matilde Mastrangelo, Scripta Web, Napoli, 2010, pp. 59-69.
- HELDT, Gustav, The Pursuit of Harmony. Poetry and Power in Early Heian Japan, Cornell University East Asia Program, Ithaca, New York, 2008.
- HIRSHFIELD, Jane e ARATANI, Mariko (a cura di), The ink Dark Moon – Love Poems by Ono no Komachi and Izumi Shikibu, Women of the Ancient Court of Japan, Vintage Books, New York, 1986.
- KAWASHIMA, Terry, Writing Margins: The Textual Construction of Gender in Heian and Kamakura Japan, Harvard University Asia Center, Cambridge (Mass.), 2001.
- McCULLOUGH, Helen Craig, Brocade by Night – ‘Kokin Wakashû’ and the Court Style in Japanese Classical Poetry, Stanford UP, Stanford, 1985.
- RABINOVITCH, Judith N., BRADSTOCK, Timothy R. (a cura di), Dance of the Butterflies. Chinese Poetry from the Japanese Court Tradition, Cornell University East Asia Program, Ithaca, New York, 2005.
- SAGIYAMA, Ikuko (a cura di), Antologia della poesia giapponese classica. Volume primo. Il Manyôshû, C.U.E.N., Napoli, 1984.
- SAGIYAMA, Ikuko (a cura di), Kokin waka shû – Raccolta di poesie giapponesi antiche e moderne, Ariele, Milano, 2000.
- STRONG, Sarah M., The Making of a Femme Fatale: Ono no Komachi in the Early Medieval Commentaries, in «Monumenta Nipponica», vol. 49, n. 4, 1994 (winter), pp.391-412.
- TEELE, Roy E.; TEELE, Nicholas J.; TEELE H. Rebecca, Ono no Komachi – Poems, Stories, Nô Plays, Garland Publishing, New York, London, 1993.
Learning Objectives
The course is divided into two modules, 36 hours each. Module A) By teaching the fundamentals of classical Japanese this module aims to provide students with the basic tools to approach classical literature in the original. Module B) By undertaking the partial translation and analysis of a representative literary work or author of the Heian or Kamakura period, this module aims to strengthen the students’ grammatical skills and to familiarize them with the stylistic, rhetorical and cultural aspects of texts written in classical Japanese.
The course aims to provide:
Knowledge:
- Advanced-level knowledge of the grammar of classical Japanese, with special reference to the Japanese style (wabun) developed in the Heian period.
- Knowledge and comprehension of the vocabulary of classical Japanese;
- In-depth knowledge and comprehension of a particular author or a specific literary text representative of the Heian or Kamakura period, analyzed in its stylistic and rhetorical aspects and interpreted within its historical and cultural background.
Skills:
- the ability to understand at an advanced level the grammatical structures of classical Japanese;
- the ability to understand in its historical and cultural nuances the vocabulary of a text in wabun;
- the acquisition of and the ability to use the methodological and bibliographical tools required for the study of classical Japanese literature;
- the ability to read a classical text as situated in its historical and cultural background, with special reference to the literary canons and models it relates to.
- the ability translate a text of classical literature by making use of its modern annotated edition.
Prerequisites
Lessons are intended for students already acquainted with modern Japanese (intermediate level). In order to attend classes students must therefore have acquired at least 12-18 credits (CFU) in modern Japanese. A basic knowledge of Japanese literary history, with special reference to the Heian and Kamakura periods is also requested.
Teaching Methods
Lectures.
During classes students will be asked simple grammatical questions and will be encouraged to translate short grammatical sentences in order to check their comprehension of the subjects under discussion. At least one drill on the main grammatical rules taught in module A will be held at the end of the course.
Further information
When necessary, the translation of the selected texts of module B may be preceded by supplementary advanced-level grammatical lessons.
Type of Assessment
Module A): Students will sit a written examination on classical grammar, followed by an oral test. Students will be asked:
- to inflect verbs, adjectives and auxiliary verbs (jodôshi);
- to select the right form of passive (ru/raru) or causative (su/sasu) auxiliary verbs according to the conjugation of the verb they follow.
- to detect the correct meaning of an auxiliary verb when used in a short sentence;
- to recognize and understand the meaning of case particles (kakujoshi), conjunctive particles (setsuzokujoshi) and of bound particles (kakari joshi);
- to translate short sentences and poems (waka) from bungo into Italian.
The written exam will be held in the morning of the first examination day of each session.
Module B): Students will sit an oral exam. They will be asked to translate and analyze in their grammatical, stylistic, and contextual (historical and literary) aspects excerpts selected from the texts studied in class. A list of the literary excerpts selected for the oral exam will be given before the end of the course.
Marks are given in 30/30 and are calculated as the mean of the marks gained for module A and the marks gained for module B.
Course program
Module A) An Introduction to classical Japanese
Introduction to the ortography and grammar of bungo (“literary language”), paying special attention to the linguistic features of late ancient Japanese (chûko nihongo), i.e., the classical language of the Heian period.
The main subjects discussed are as follows.
A) A short account of the phonology of ancient Japanese. B) The historical kana spelling (rekishiteki kanazukai). C) The inflected forms of verbs (katsuyôkei). D) Inflecting suffixes (or auxiliary verbs, jodôshi). E) Bound particles (kakari joshi) and the rule of linking (kakari musubi). F) An introduction to case particles (kakujoshi) and conjunctive particles (setsuzokujoshi).
Each item will be illustrated with examples drawn from classical texts, mainly belonging to Heian and Kamakura literature.
Module B) Reading kobun (classical texts): Ono no Komachi’s poetry and the genesis of the Komachishû.
Although only eighteen waka can be safely ascribed to her, Ono no Komachi (fl. ninth cent.) is considered one of the greatest poets in Japanese literary history. Drawing on both the Chinese and the Japanese tradition, her poetry marked one of the apexes of “female poetry” (onnauta), and established a literary model which, in its two faces (the ‘weak’ Komachi and the ‘cruel’ Komachi), was subsequently imitated and further developed not only in waka, but in narrative and theatrical texts as well. In order to clarify how this double literary identity came into being, this course will first examine Komachi’s poetical lineage and her use of the poetical tradition; next, it will proceed to assess the early reception of her works, with special reference to the posthumous compilation of her personal collection, the Komachishû (ca. 1000), which centers on the ‘weak Komachi’ figure. The module is divided into two parts (Part 1 and Part 2).
Part 1 will deal with onnauta as a subgenre of waka, tracing its emergence and historical development, its conventions and interpreters up to the age of Komachi. We shall first touch on the female ‘retorts’ typical of the archaic poetical exchanges (utagaki) and will consider their distinctive features through the analysis of some early women’s poems in the Man’yôshû. We shall then discuss the subsequent evolution of female poetry in the Man’yôshû’s third phase, with particular reference to the “introspective turn” imparted to onnauta by Ôtomo no Sakanoue no Iratsume. Concurrently with the existence of a native female lineage, we shall also take into account the impact of Chinese models, namely the influence of the “lonely woman” theme (guiyuan, or “boudoir lament”) on the Man’yôshû and on the imperial kanshi anthologies compiled in the first half of the ninth century (examples from Bunka Shûreishû’s “Enjô” section). We shall further proceed to examine the literary context of Komachi’s age, that is the distinctive features of the rokkasen’s production, focusing on the adaptation of Chinese models to the composition of waka. We shall dwell in particular on the adoption of fictional female roles modeled on the “lonely lady theme” in Sôjô Henjô’s and Sosei’s waka. Against this background we shall then review the rhetorical and stylistic features of the eighteen poems by Komachi included in the Kokin wakashû, concentrating on the contrasting personae (the cruel woman, the weak woman) she interpreted and analyzing the specific elements that render her waka uniquely “moving” (aware naru yau).
The second part (part 2) of the module will trace the reception of Komachi’s poetry and the early constructions of the ‘weak Komachi’ story during the tenth century. We shall first examine the poems ascribed to Komachi in the second imperial anthology, Gosen wakashû (956 ca.), with special reference to the marine Komachi poems and to the question of their authenticity. We shall then consider some imitations of Komachi’s poems in the same anthology and the penchant they reveal for the portrayal of a weak woman. We shall subsequently tackle the subject of personal poetry collections (shikashû), briefly analizing their historical evolution and the variety of forms and functions (literary and social) that characterize their compilation during the tenth century. This will serve as an introduction to the main issue of part 2, that is, Komachi’s posthumous personal collection, or Komachishû. We shall first examine its textual lines and variant editions, further comparing the structure of the current text (rufubon) and of the variant text (ihon). Through the translation and analysis of the rufubon poems, we shall then concentrate on the inception of the ‘weak Komachi’ figure, focusing in particular on the distinctively weak turn taken by the imitations of the original marine poems by Komachi (Kokinshû XIII,623; XIV,727) and on the introduction of the “mountain village woman” (yamazato no onna) as an impersonation of Komachi.
If time permits, we shall finally examine the first steps to the construction of Komachi’s legend in its two aspects (the weak and the cruel). We shall first consider the reception of Mirume naki (Kokinshû XIII,623) in section 25 of the Ise monogatari and the genesis of the cruel Komachi stories. Pursuing the creation of the weak Komachi story, we shall then translate the final poetic sequence (waka 67-69) of the ihon. Classes will end with a brief discussion of the Tamatsukuri Komachishi sôsuisho and the ancient interpretation of this text as Komachi’s ‘biography’.