The Tale of Genji, (3 Volume Set)

The monumental Japanese fictional narrative known as The Tale of Genji (Genji monogatari) appeared during the first decade or so of the eleventh century, CE. This vast narrative - which spans three-quarters of a century, and is made up of fifty-four chapters and 795 poems - has been attributed to a woman known only as Murasaki Shikibu. It has often been celebrated as ‘the world’s oldest novel’.

The Tale of Genji has generated a huge scholarly literature, and this new collection, co-published by Routledge and Edition Synapse, meets the need for an authoritative reference work to help researchers and students navigate and make sense of it. The collection is made up of three volumes which bring together the best and most influential canonical and cutting-edge research.

The first volume (‘Cultures of Reading The Tale of Genji’) assembles the key work in narratology, aesthetics, and poetics. A narrative that can - and has - been read primarily as a ‘romance’ has much to say about the history, culture, and society of its time, and Volume II (‘Sexual Politics in The Tale of Genji’) is organized around often contested themes such as gender, genre, and politics. The scholarship in the final volume (‘The Tale of Genji and its Others’), meanwhile, gathers the best work on topics including Noh, visual art, ‘China’, and later literature.

With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the material in its historical and intellectual context, The Tale of Genji is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued by scholars and students as a vital one-stop research resource.

Volume I : Cultures of Reading The Tale of Genji

Chapter 1 : The Cultural Background : Murasaki Shikibu : The Tale of Genji
Chapter 2 : Language and Style : Murasaki Shikibu : The Tale of Genji
Chapter 3 : The Order of The Early Chapters in The Genji Monogatari : Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Chapter 4 : Kingship and Transgression : Bridge of Dreams : A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’
Chapter 5 : Narrating The Private : Figures of Resistance : Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and OTher Mid-Heian Texts
Chapter 6 : Flowering Fortunes : Bridge of Dreams : A Poetics of ‘The Tale of Genji’
Chapter 7 : Substitutions and Incidental Narrating : "Wakamurasaki" : Figures of Resistance : Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and OTher Mid-Heian Texts
Chapter 8 : Lady Murasaki’s Erotic Entertainment : The Early Chapters of The Tale of Genji : East Asian History
Chapter 9 : The Substratum Constituting Monogatari : Prose Structure and Narrative in The Genji Monogatari, Principles of Classical Japanese Literature
Chapter 10 : Who Tells The Tale? : Monumenta Nipponica
Chapter 11 : A Figure of Narrating : Tamakazura : Figures of Resistance : Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and OTher Mid-Heian Texts
Chapter 12 : A Wisp of Smoke : Scent and Character in The Tale of Genji : Monumenta Nipponica
Chapter 13 : The Lyric Mode and The Lament : Bridge of Dreams : A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’
Chapter 14 : Operation of The Lyrical Mode, Ukifune : Love in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 15 : Repetition and Difference : Ukifune : Bridge of Dreams : A Poetics of ‘The The Tale of Genji’
Chapter 16 : Murasaki’s Art of Fiction : Japan Quarterly
Chapter 17 : Politics and Poetics in The Tale of Genji : Gender and National Literature : Heian Texts in The Construction of Japanese Modernity

Volume II : Gender, Sexuality, Women, and Men in The Tale of Genji

Chapter 18 : Women and The Emergence of Heian Kana Writing : Gender and National Literature : Heian Texts in The Construction of Japanese Modernity
Chapter 19 : Situating The "Feminine Hand" : Figures of Resistance : Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and OTher Mid-Heian Texts
Chapter 20 : Three Heroines and The Making of The Hero : The Splendor of Longing in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 21 : Feminine Representation and Critique : "Hahakigi" : Figures of Resistance : Language, Poetry, and Narrating in The Tale of Genji and OTher Mid-Heian Texts
Chapter 22 : They Also Serve : Ladies-in-Waiting in The Tale of Genji, Approaches to Teaching Murasaki Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji
Chapter 23 : Enter Mono No Ke : Spirit Possession in Cultural Context : A Woman’s Weapon : Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 24 : Aoi : A Woman’s Weapon : Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 25 : The Third Princess : A Woman’s Weapon : Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 26 : Exit Mono No Ke : Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji : A Woman’s Weapon : Spirit Possession in The Tale of Genji
Chapter 27 : The Value of Vulnerability : Sexual Coercion and The Nature of Love in Japanese Court Literature : The Journal of Asian Studies
Chapter 28 : The Tale of Genji : Two Cranes Flying Wing to Wing : A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan
Chapter 29 : The Uji Chapters : Maidens of The Bridge : A Poetics of Courtly Male Friendship in Heian Japan
Chapter 30 : Didactic Readings of The Tale of Genji : Politics and Women’s Education, Envisioning The Tale of Genji
Chapter 31 : Speaking For : Surrogates and The Tale of Genji, Crossing The Bridge : Comparative Essays on Medieval European and Heian Japanese Women Writers

Volume III : The Tale of Genji and its OThers

Chapter 32 : The Informing Image : "China" in Genji Monogatari : Monumenta Nipponica
Chapter 33 : The Reception of The Genji in The Middle Ages : Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji : The Art of Illusion in Fifteen Classical Plays
Chapter 34 : The Genji and The Noh : Noh Drama and The Tale of Genji : The Art of Illusion in Fifteen Classical Plays
Chapter 35 : The Tale of Genji and The Development of Female-Spirit No, Envisioning The Tale of Genji
Chapter 36 : The Rite of Writing : Thoughts on The Oldest Genji Text : RES : Anthropology and AesThetics
Chapter 37 : Figure and Fracture : The Tale of Genji Scrolls, Envisioning The Tale of Genji
Chapter 38 : Narrative Framing in The "Tale of Genji Scroll" : Interior Space in The Compartmentalized Emaki
Chapter 39 : The Relationship Between The Romance and Religious Observances : Genji Monogatari as Myth : Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
Chapter 40 : The Function of Music in The Tale of Genji : Journal of Comparative Literature
Chapter 41 : Japanese Marriage Institutions in The Heian Period : Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies
Chapter 42 : The Meaning of Matrilocality : Kinship, Property, and Politics in Mid-Heian : Monumenta Nipponica
Chapter 43 : Heian Fantasies : Nationalism and Nostalgia in The Reading of Genji : Appraising Genji : Literary Criticism and Cultural Anxiety in The Age of The Last Samurai
Chapter 44 : Medieval Interpretations of Mursaki Shikibu’s "Defense of The Art of Fiction" : Studies on Japanese Culture
Chapter 45 : Wartime Japan, The Imperial Line, and The Tale of Genji, Envisioning The Tale of Genji
Chapter 46 : A Different Kind of Hero : The Tale of Genji and The American Reader, No Small World : Visions and Revisions of World Literature
Chapter 47 : The Tale of Genji : The Essays of Virginia Woolf
Chapter 48 : Translation as Interpretation : The Journal of Asian Studies