Research Catalog

Title

Unreal houses : character, gender, and genealogy in the Tale of Genji / Edith Sarra.

Author

Sarra, Edith, 1955-

Publication

• Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Asia Center, 2020.
• ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiii, 341 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"The Tale of Genji (ca. 1008, by noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu) is known for its sophisticated renderings of fictional characters' minds and its critical perspectives on class and gender asymmetries in eleventh-century Japan. In Unreal Houses, Edith Sarra argues that in both form and content the Genji re-envisions the elite practice of polygynous marriage and the construction of mansions as expressions of familial power. She radically rethinks the Genji by focusing on the figure of the house-encompassing both fictionalized images of aristocratic mansions and representations of their inhabitants. How do key characters in the Tale of Genji "think" about houses? Through close readings of the Genji and other Heian narratives, Sarra elucidates the tale's fabrication of the social, architectural, and affective spaces of polygyny, and shows how the figure of the house contributes to the structuring of narrative sequences and the expression of relational nuances among fictional characters. Combining literary analysis with the history of gender, marriage, and the built environment, this study opens new perspectives on the architectonics of the Genji and the feminine milieu that midwifed what some have called the world's first novel"--

Series Statement

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 429

Uniform Title

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 429.

Subject

• Murasaki Shikibu, 978?-
• Genji monogatari (Murasaki Shikibu)
• 794-1185
• Dwellings in literature
• Marriage in literature
• Genealogy in literature
• Japanese literature > Heian period, 794-1185 > History and criticism
• Japanese literature > Heian period

Genre/Form

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Call Number

JFE 21-2533

ISBN

• 9780674244436
• 0674244435

LCCN

2019043584

OCLC

1114444822

Author

Sarra, Edith, 1955- author.

Title

Unreal houses : character, gender, and genealogy in the Tale of Genji / Edith Sarra.

Publisher

Cambridge, Massachusetts : Harvard University Asia Center, 2020.

Copyright Date

©2020

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Series

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 429

Harvard East Asian monographs ; 429.

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Chronological Term

794-1185

Research Call Number

JFE 21-2533