Inventing the Classics: Modernity, National Identity, and Japanese Literature

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?

Table of Contents:
Contributors Historical periods Introduction: issues in Canon formation Haruo Shirane Part I. Nation Building and National Lterature: 1. Man'yoshu: the invention of a national poetry anthology Shinada Yoshikazu 2. Constructing imperial mythology: Kojiki and Nihon Shoki Konoshi Takamitsu Part II. Gender, Genre, and Cultural Identity: 3. Gender and genre: modern literary histories and women's diary literature Tomi Suzuki 4. Modern constructions of tales of ise: Gender and courtliness Joshua S. Mostow 5. Zuihitsu and gender: Tsurezuregusa and the pillow book Linda H. Chance Part III. History to Literature, Performance to Text: 6. Nation and epic: the tale of the heiki as modern classic David T. Bialock 7. Chikamatsu and dramatic literature in the meiji period William Lee Part IV. Language, Authority, and the Curriculum: 8. Kangaku: writing and institutional authority Kurozumi Makoto 9. Curriculum and competing canons Haruo Shirane Notes Index.

About the Author :
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).

Review :
"Inventing the Classics fills a major gap in Japanese literary studies in its presentation of ten original, sophisticated, and cogently argued essays on the process of the construction of 'Japanese literature' as it is known today. The volume combines a richly detailed historical approach to the study of canon formation with a nuanced theoretical discussion of the relevance of canon formation to the formation of a Japanese cultural and national identity. It also sheds important light on the changing socio-political function of specific works and genres." - Janet Walker, Rutgers University "The collection presents a truly significant contribution to the study of Japanese literature... All the essays are solidly researched and lucidly written, and the volume is certain to be widely used and cited." - Journal of Asian Studies