Home Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Constructions of Japanese Modernity by Tomiko Yoda (ISBN: 9780822332374)

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Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Constructions of Japanese Modernity Paperback - 2004

Name: Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Constructions of Japanese Modernity
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Author: Tomiko Yoda
ISBN: 9780822332374

by Tomiko Yoda

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From the publisher

Boldly challenging traditional understandings of Heian literature, Tomiko Yoda reveals the connections between gender, nationalism, and cultural representation evident in prevailing interpretations of classic Heian texts. Renowned for the wealth and sophistication of women's writing, the literature of the Heian period (794-1192) has long been considered central to the Japanese literary canon and Japanese national identity. Yoda historicizes claims about the inherent femininity of this literature by revisiting key moments in the history of Japanese literary scholarship from the eighteenth century to the present. She argues that by foregrounding women's voices in Heian literature, the discipline has repeatedly enacted the problematic modernizing gesture in which the "feminine" is recognized, canceled, and then contained within a national framework articulated in masculine terms.

Moving back and forth between a critique of modern discourses on Heian literature and close analyses of the Heian texts themselves, Yoda sheds light on some of the most persistent interpretive models underwriting Japanese literary studies, particularly the modern paradigm of a masculine national subject. She proposes new directions for disciplinary critique and suggests that historicized understandings of premodern texts offer significant insights into contemporary feminist theories of subjectivity and agency.

From the rear cover

"Keenly, lucidly, thoroughly, " Gender and National Literature" shows how the modern feminization of Heian literature did not simply parallel the formation of the modern subject in Japan, but proved integral to it. Tomiko Yoda thus issues a profound challenge to the received wisdom about the femininity and the 'women' of classical literature. And her response is brilliant: turning to the materiality of the Heian text, Yoda poses new readings that take the question of gender far beyond previous studies of Heian and modern Japanese literature."--Thomas LaMarre, author of "Uncovering Heian Japan: An Archaeology of Sensation and Inscription"

Details

Title Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Constructions of Japanese Modernity
Author Tomiko Yoda
Binding Paperback
Pages 296
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Duke University Press
Date 2004-03-22
Illustrated Yes
Features Bibliography, Illustrated, Index, Table of Contents
ISBN 9780822332374 / 082233237X
Weight 0.88 lbs (0.40 kg)
Dimensions 9.44 x 6.12 x 0.71 in (23.98 x 15.54 x 1.80 cm)
Themes
- Cultural Region: Asian - General
Library of Congress subjects Feminist literary criticism - Japan, Japanese literature - Women authors -
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2003014178
Dewey Decimal Code 895.609

Media reviews

Citations

Choice, 01/01/2005, Page 849

About the author

Tomiko Yoda is Associate Professor in the Department of Asian and African Languages and the Program in Literature at Duke University.

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Gender and National Literature: Heian Texts in the Constructions of Japanese Modernity

by Tomiko Yoda

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Paperback / softback. New. Reveals the connections between gender, nationalism, and cultural representation evident in prevailing interpretations of classic Heian texts (794-1192). This book argues that by foregrounding women's voices in Heian literature, the discipline has repeatedly enacted the modernizing gesture in which the 'feminine' is recognized, and canceled.