Inventing the Classics

by Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki

Estimated delivery 3-12 business days

Format Hardcover

Condition Brand New

Description What we understand as 'Japanese literary classics' (such as Noh drama, and the works of Saikaku and Basho) did not become 'classics' until the end of the nineteenth century. This book addresses the ways in which European notions of 'literature' played a role in the canonization process.

Publisher Description

Today the term Japanese literary classics implies such texts as the Man yoshu, Kojiki, Tale of Genji, Tale of the Heike, Noh drama, and the works of Saikaku, Chikamatsu, and Basho, which are considered the wellspring and embodiment of Japanese tradition and culture. Most of these texts, however, did not become classics until the end of the nineteenth century, in a process closely related to the emergence of Japan as a modern nation-state and to the radical reconfiguration of notions of literature and learning under Western influence. As in Europe and elsewhere, the construction of a national literature and language with a putative ancient lineage was critical to the creation of a distinct nation-state. This book addresses the issue of national identity and the ways in which modern European disciplinary notions of literature and genres played a major role in the modern canonization process. These classics did not have inherent, unchanging value; instead, their value was produced and reproduced by various institutions and individuals in relation to socio-economic power. How then were these texts elevated and used? What kinds of values were given to them?How was this process related to larger social, political, and religious configurations?

Author Biography

Haruo Shirane is Shincho Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University. His most recent book is Traces of Dreams: Landscape, Cultural Memory, and the Poetry of Basho (Stanford, 1998). Tomi Suzuki is Associate Professor of Japanese Literature at Columbia University. She is the author of Narrating the Self: Fictions of Japanese Modernity (Stanford, 1996).

Details

  • ISBN 0804739900
  • ISBN-13 9780804739900
  • Title Inventing the Classics
  • Author Haruo Shirane, Tomi Suzuki
  • Format Hardcover
  • Year 2002
  • Pages 352
  • Publisher Stanford University Press
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