Dartmouth Events

"Storytelling in Heian Japan: Intimate Epics for a Popular Audience"

The first half of the talk will discuss the social and literary context of the Tale of Genji (1008), through the lenses of three other works of the  mid-Heian period: Kagerō Diary (c.971), Ochikubo monogatari/ Tale of the Lady of the Low Chamber (c. 980) and the Sarashina Diary (c. 1060), all of which have been translated by the speaker. The second half will feature readings of excerpts from those three texts and the Tale of Genji. The excerpts all describe the experience of festival processions, which attracted as much public excitement in the Heian period  as major sporting events in our contemporary culture. The readings will attempt to recreate in some small measure the aural reception of such texts in the Heian period.

Sonja Arntzen taught at the University of Alberta and University of Toronto. Now living in Vancouver, B.C., she continues her research and writing on Japanese literature of the Heian and Medieval eras. Her monographs include: Ikkyū and the Crazy Cloud Anthology (Tokyo University Press, 1986 revised and expanded edition, Quirin Press, 2022), The Kagerō Diary (University of Michigan, 1997), and The Sarashina Diary: A Woman’s Life in Eleventh Century Japan, (Columbia University Press, 2014, Reader’s Edition, 2018). Her current project is a new translation of the Ochikubo monogatari, working title, Lady of the Low Chamber.

Sponsored by the Department of Asian Societies, Cultures, and Languages with funding from the Dean of the Faculty. Free and open to the public.