How Dark Is My Flower: Yosano Akiko and the Invention of Romantic Love

Author:   Leith Morton
Publisher:   The University of Michigan Press
ISBN:  

9780472055753


Pages:   414
Publication Date:   30 January 2023
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
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How Dark Is My Flower: Yosano Akiko and the Invention of Romantic Love


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Overview

The poetry of Yosano Akiko covers all the many and varied aspects of the experience of love—from early romantic encounters between the lover and beloved to the intimate pleasures of mutual infatuation and then true love. The journey outlined in Akiko’s verse also grapples with jealousy and unrequited passion, as Akiko’s poem-narrative treats the rivalry between herself and her best friend, the poet Yamakawa Tomiko, for the affection of the dashing young literary lion, Yosano Tekkan, who later became Akiko’s husband. Thus, How Dark Is My Flower: Yosano Akiko and the Invention of Romantic Love tells a number of stories: a real-life romance unfolds in the poetry of these three poets examined in the book, as well as the story of the journey from romanticism to modernism undertaken by early 20th century Japanese poetry. How Dark Is My Flower emphasizes the astonishing innovations in diction and style, not to mention content, in Akiko’s work that transformed the tanka genre from a hidebound and conservative mode of verse to something much more daring and modern. This book pays particular attention to poetry, particularly the tanka genre, in the evolution of modernism in Japanese literature and breaks new ground in the study of modern Japanese literature by examining the invention and evolution of the concept of romantic love.

Full Product Details

Author:   Leith Morton
Publisher:   The University of Michigan Press
Imprint:   The University of Michigan Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.00cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.60cm
Weight:   0.363kg
ISBN:  

9780472055753


ISBN 10:   0472055755
Pages:   414
Publication Date:   30 January 2023
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock   Availability explained
We have confirmation that this item is in stock with the supplier. It will be ordered in for you and dispatched immediately.

Table of Contents

Preface Introduction Chapter 1: Romantic Love in The Sun 1895-1905 Chapter 2: Romantic Love in The Woman’s Magazine 1897-1904 Chapter 3: The Birth of the Modern: Yosano Akiko and Tekkan’s Verse Revolution Chapter 4: Inventing Modernist Poetry: Yosano Akiko’s Rewriting of Tradition Chapter 5: Romantic Love in Myōjō Exchange Verse Chapter 6: Love as Literary Construct: Erotic Tropes in the Poetry of Yosano Akiko, Tekkan, and Yamakawa Tomiko Chapter 7: Rewriting Texts as Text: A Study of the “White Lily” Chapter of Tangled Hair Chapter 8: Yosano Akiko’s Tangled Hair, Modernity and Kansai Culture Chapter 9: The Poetics of Naturalism: Yosano Akiko and Motherhood Chapter 10: The Canonicity of Yosano Akiko’s Tangled Hair Reflections Bibliography Index

Reviews

This work brings together and builds on the extensive scholarship in Japan and the budding scholarship in the West on Yosano Akiko, her circle, and modern tanka. It manages to grapple with an enormous body of work and also bring the opinions of a variety of critics and critical approaches to bear. The translations are often the first of these poems into English, and they are extremely appealing. -Laurel Rasplica Rodd, University of Colorado Boulder The book gives a detailed exegesis of the poetry of the Myojo school, whose key founders Yosano Hiroshi, Yosano Akiko, and Yamakawa Tomiko were leaders in the modernization of the tanka, whose importance to the history of Japanese literature cannot be overstated. Morton is clearly informed by and builds on an encyclopedic review of Japanese-language scholarship on the topic, providing an enormous service to the field. -Julia Bullock, Emory University


The book gives a detailed exegesis of the poetry of the Myojo school, whose key founders Yosano Hiroshi, Yosano Akiko, and Yamakawa Tomiko were leaders in the modernization of the tanka, whose importance to the history of Japanese literature cannot be overstated. Morton is clearly informed by and builds on an encyclopedic review of Japanese-language scholarship on the topic, providing an enormous service to the field. --Julia Bullock, Emory University -- Julia Bullock, Emory University This work brings together and builds on the extensive scholarship in Japan and the budding scholarship in the West on Yosano Akiko, her circle, and modern tanka. It manages to grapple with an enormous body of work and also bring the opinions of a variety of critics and critical approaches to bear. The translations are often the first of these poems into English, and they are extremely appealing. --Laurel Rasplica Rodd, University of Colorado Boulder-- Laurel Rasplica Rodd


Author Information

Leith Morton is Professor Emeritus at Tokyo University of Technology and Academic Affiliate in the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Sydney.

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