Murasaki Shikibu''s the Tale of Genji - Philosophical Perspectives

The essays in this collection engage with Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale Genji as a work of philosophical significance, analyzing the text from a wide range of perspectives. The essays touch on almost all branches of philosophy and engage with topics such as the exercise of power, the concept of space, construction of personhood, cultural and artistic practices, and gender.

About the author

James McMullen, a Fellow of the British Academy, is a specialist on the history of Confucianism in Japan. He began his teaching career at the University of Toronto and is currently a Fellow Emeritus at Pembroke and St Antony's Colleges in the University of Oxford.

Summary

The essays in this collection engage with Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale Genji as a work of philosophical significance, analyzing the text from a wide range of perspectives. The essays touch on almost all branches of philosophy and engage with topics such as the exercise of power, the concept of space, construction of personhood, cultural and artistic practices, and gender.

Additional text

This volume presents a kaleidoscope of perspectives on Genji monogatari. The degree of abstraction implicit in its mandated philosophical approach makes patterns more apparent in the text. The immense variety of those patterns and their interlocking quality are dazzling. As the lens shifts from "space" to "exteriority/interiority" to "gender," it is almost as though a different novel appears... the uniformly high level of literary quality in all the essays makes this work a pleasurable read. All in all, this work admirably fulfi lls its goal of providing a philosophical exploration of Genji monogatari.

Product details

• Authors: James (Fellow Emeritus Mcmullen
• Assisted by: James McMullen (Editor), James (Fellow Emeritus Mcmullen (Editor), McMullen James (Editor)
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2019
• EAN: 9780190654979
• ISBN: 978-0-19-065497-9
• No. of pages: 288
• Series: Oxford Studies in Philosophy and Lit; Oxford Studies in Philosophy and Lit; Oxford Studies in Philosophy a
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, PHILOSOPHY / Language, Japanese, LITERARY CRITICISM / Asian / General, Literary studies: classical, early & medieval, c 1000 CE to c 1500, Philosophy: aesthetics, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Literary studies: ancient, classical and medieval