The Tale of Genji

Informationen zum Autor Michael Emmerich is associate professor of Japanese literature and cultural studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (CUP 2015), and the editor of Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers and New Penguin Parallel Text: Short Stories in Japanese . Klappentext Michael Emmerich thoroughly revises the conventional narrative of the early modern and modern history of The Tale of Genji. Exploring iterations of the work from the 1830s to the 1950s! he demonstrates how translations and the global circulation of discourse they inspired turned The Tale of Genji into a widely read classic! reframing our understanding of its significance and influence and of the processes that have canonized the text. Emmerich begins with an analysis of the lavishly produced best seller Nise Murasaki inaka Genji ( A Fraudulent Murasaki's Bumpkin Genji! 1829-1842)! an adaptation of Genji written and designed by Ryutei Tanehiko! with pictures by the great print artist Utagawa Kunisada. He argues that this work introduced Genji to a popular Japanese audience and created a new mode of reading. He then considers movable-type editions of Inaka Genji from 1888 to 1928! connecting trends in print technology and publishing to larger developments in national literature and showing how the one-time best seller became obsolete.The study subsequently traces Genji's reemergence as a classic on a global scale! following its acceptance into the canon of world literature before the text gained popularity in Japan. It concludes with Genji's becoming a "national classic" during World War II and reviews an important postwar challenge to reading the work after it attained this status. Through his sustained critique! Emmerich upends scholarship on Japan's preeminent classic while remaking theories of world literature! continuity! and community. Zusammenfassung Tracing the canonization through translation of The Tale of Genji from the 1830s to the 1950s! Michael Emmerich rewrites the early modern and modern history of the work! illuminating the intricate process by which it came to be recognized as a classic of both Japanese and world literature. Inhaltsverzeichnis AcknowledgmentsA Note to the ReaderIntroduction: Replacing the TextPart I. Ninety-Nine Years in the Life of an ImageTouchstone 1. Reimagining the Canon1. A Gokan Is a Gokan Is a Gokan: Inaka Genji Beyond Parody2. Reading Higashiyama: Image! Text! and Book in Inaka Genji3. Turning a New Page: Bibliographic Translation and the Yomihonization of Inaka GenjiPart II. In Medias ResTouchstone 2. Triangle4. The History of a Romance: Genji Before Waley5. From the World to the Nation: Making Genji Ours6. "Genji monogatari: Translation and Original"Conclusion: Turning to Translation! Returning to TranslationNotesIndex ...

Auteur
Michael Emmerich is associate professor of Japanese literature and cultural studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature (CUP 2015), and the editor of Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers and New Penguin Parallel Text: Short Stories in Japanese.

Texte du rabat

Ambitious and engrossing, this volume thoroughly revises the conventional narrative of The Tale of Genji's early modern and modern history, arguing that until the 1930s readers were less familiar with the eleventh-century work than scholars have assumed. Exploring iterations of the work from the 1830s to the 1950s, Michael Emmerich demonstrates how translations and the global circulation of discourse they inspired turned The Tale of Genji into a widely read classic, reframing not only our understanding of its significance and influence but also the processes that have canonized the text. In doing so, he supplants the passive concept of "reception" with the active notion of "replacement," revitalizing the work of literary criticism. Part I begins with a close reading of the lavishly produced bestseller A Fraudulent Murasaki's Bumpkin Genji (1829--1842), an adaptation of Genji written and designed by Ryutei Tanehiko, with pictures by the great print artist Utagawa Kunisada. Emmerich argues that this work, with its sophisticated "image-text-book relations," first introduced Genji to a popular Japanese audience, creating a new mode of reading in which people interested in Genji read a more approachable version instead. He then considers moveable type editions of Bumpkin Genji from 1888 to 1928 as "bibliographic translations," connecting trends in print and publishing to larger developments in national literature and showing how the one-time bestseller became obsolete. Part II traces Genji's recanonization as a classic on a global scale, revealing that it entered the canons of world literature before the text gained popularity in Japan -- and that it was Suematsu Kencho's now-forgotten partial translation of Genji into English in 1882 that accomplished this, four decades before Arthur Waley's still-famous translation. Emmerich concludes by analyzing Genji's emergence as a "national classic" during World War II and reviews an important postwar challenge to reading the work in this mode. Through his sustained critique, Emmerich upends scholarship on Japan's preeminent classic, while remaking theories of world literature, continuity, and community.

Résumé
Tracing the canonization through translation of The Tale of Genji from the 1830s to the 1950s, Michael Emmerich rewrites the early modern and modern history of the work, illuminating the intricate process by which it came to be recognized as a classic of both Japanese and world literature.

Contenu

AcknowledgmentsA Note to the ReaderIntroduction: Replacing the TextPart I. Ninety-Nine Years in the Life of an ImageTouchstone 1. Reimagining the Canon1. A Gokan Is a Gokan Is a Gokan: Inaka Genji Beyond Parody2. Reading Higashiyama: Image, Text, and Book in Inaka Genji3. Turning a New Page: Bibliographic Translation and the Yomihonization of Inaka GenjiPart II. In Medias ResTouchstone 2. Triangle4. The History of a Romance: Genji Before Waley5. From the World to the Nation: Making Genji Ours6. "Genji monogatari: Translation and Original"Conclusion: Turning to Translation, Returning to TranslationNotesIndex