The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature

Awards:   Commended for Honorable Mention - PROSE Award in Literature 2013 Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014 Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2017 Winner of Outstanding Academic Title 2017
Author:   Michael Emmerich (University Of California, Los Angeles)
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
ISBN:  

9780231162739


Pages:   512
Publication Date:   12 May 2015
Format:   Paperback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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The Tale of Genji: Translation, Canonization, and World Literature


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Awards

  • Commended for Honorable Mention - PROSE Award in Literature 2013
  • Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2014
  • Winner of Choice Outstanding Academic Title 2017
  • Winner of Outstanding Academic Title 2017

Overview

Michael Emmerich thoroughly revises the conventional narrative of the early modern and modern history of The Tale of Genji. Exploring iterations of the work from the 1830s to the 1950s, he demonstrates how translations and the global circulation of discourse they inspired turned The Tale of Genji into a widely read classic, reframing our understanding of its significance and influence and of the processes that have canonized the text. Emmerich begins with an analysis of the lavishly produced best seller Nise Murasaki inaka Genji (A Fraudulent Murasaki's Bumpkin Genji, 1829–1842), an adaptation of Genji written and designed by Ryutei Tanehiko, with pictures by the great print artist Utagawa Kunisada. He argues that this work introduced Genji to a popular Japanese audience and created a new mode of reading. He then considers movable-type editions of Inaka Genji from 1888 to 1928, connecting trends in print technology and publishing to larger developments in national literature and showing how the one-time best seller became obsolete. The study subsequently traces Genji's reemergence as a classic on a global scale, following its acceptance into the canon of world literature before the text gained popularity in Japan. It concludes with Genji's becoming a ""national classic"" during World War II and reviews an important postwar challenge to reading the work after it attained this status. Through his sustained critique, Emmerich upends scholarship on Japan's preeminent classic while remaking theories of world literature, continuity, and community.

Full Product Details

Author:   Michael Emmerich (University Of California, Los Angeles)
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
Imprint:   Columbia University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 2.80cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.737kg
ISBN:  

9780231162739


ISBN 10:   0231162731
Pages:   512
Publication Date:   12 May 2015
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.
Language:   English

Table of Contents

"Acknowledgments A Note to the Reader Introduction: Replacing the Text Part I. Ninety-Nine Years in the Life of an Image Touchstone 1. Reimagining the Canon 1. A Gokan Is a Gokan Is a Gokan: Inaka Genji Beyond Parody 2. Reading Higashiyama: Image, Text, and Book in Inaka Genji 3. Turning a New Page: Bibliographic Translation and the Yomihonization of Inaka Genji Part II. In Medias Res Touchstone 2. Triangle 4. The History of a Romance: Genji Before Waley 5. From the World to the Nation: Making Genji Ours 6. ""Genji monogatari: Translation and Original"" Conclusion: Turning to Translation, Returning to Translation Notes Index"

Reviews

The Tale of Genji is a brilliantly sustained work of literary criticism, quite the most engrossing book in the field of Japanese literature I have read in years. It is a rare book, one that is sure to have a profound and lasting impact. -- Gaye Rowley, Waseda University A stunning tour de force, The Tale of Genji reveals the manner in which the work was 'replaced' by various texts and how it was made, from the late nineteenth century, into a world classic both in and outside Japan. Throughout, Michael Emmerich engages with translation studies, reception theory, and current notions of world literature, writing in a transnational, translingual context. This book makes us profoundly aware of the transformation of the material Tale of Genji and reading practices in Japan from the late early modern through the postwar period, thus bridging the gap between early modern and modern literary studies as well as that between Japanese literary studies and contemporary translation studies. -- Haruo Shirane, Columbia University, author of Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons Michael Emmerich's astute analyses and imaginative interpretations are likely to radically change our view of Japanese literature and the role translation has played in its constitution, and they expand even the notion of translation itself. This discerning study gives a refreshing look at how an Edo-period illustrated book was put together and how it functioned. Anyone interested in the visual culture of Japan should read this book. -- Yoshiaki Shimizu, Princeton University This work's profundity, clarity, intriguing revelations, and accessibility recommend it to a wide readership... Essential. Choice 5/1/14


The Tale of Genji is a brilliantly sustained work of literary criticism, quite the most engrossing book in the field of Japanese literature I have read in years. It is a rare book, one that is sure to have a profound and lasting impact. -- Gaye Rowley, Waseda University A stunning tour de force, The Tale of Genji reveals the manner in which the work was 'replaced' by various texts and how it was made, from the late nineteenth century, into a world classic both in and outside Japan. Throughout, Michael Emmerich engages with translation studies, reception theory, and current notions of world literature, writing in a transnational, translingual context. This book makes us profoundly aware of the transformation of the material Tale of Genji and reading practices in Japan from the late early modern through the postwar period, thus bridging the gap between early modern and modern literary studies as well as that between Japanese literary studies and contemporary translation studies. -- Haruo Shirane, Columbia University, author of Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons Michael Emmerich's astute analyses and imaginative interpretations are likely to radically change our view of Japanese literature and the role translation has played in its constitution, and they expand even the notion of translation itself. This discerning study gives a refreshing look at how an Edo-period illustrated book was put together and how it functioned. Anyone interested in the visual culture of Japan should read this book. -- Yoshiaki Shimizu, Princeton University This work's profundity, clarity, intriguing revelations, and accessibility recommend it to a wide readership... Essential. Choice This is a fabulously stimulating scholarly work... a highly sophisticated study of some of the most influential productions in word and image that have sprung from the Genji... The book is highly recommended to those who want to learn about Genji replacements and canonization Modern Philology


The Tale of Genji is a brilliantly sustained work of literary criticism, quite the most engrossing book in the field of Japanese literature I have read in years. It is a rare book, one that is sure to have a profound and lasting impact. -- Gaye Rowley, Waseda University A stunning tour de force, The Tale of Genji reveals the manner in which the work was 'replaced' by various texts and how it was made, from the late nineteenth century, into a world classic both in and outside Japan. Throughout, Michael Emmerich engages with translation studies, reception theory, and current notions of world literature, writing in a transnational, translingual context. This book makes us profoundly aware of the transformation of the material Tale of Genji and reading practices in Japan from the late early modern through the postwar period, thus bridging the gap between early modern and modern literary studies as well as that between Japanese literary studies and contemporary translation studies. -- Haruo Shirane, Columbia University, author of Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons Michael Emmerich's astute analyses and imaginative interpretations are likely to radically change our view of Japanese literature and the role translation has played in its constitution, and they expand even the notion of translation itself. This discerning study gives a refreshing look at how an Edo-period illustrated book was put together and how it functioned. Anyone interested in the visual culture of Japan should read this book. -- Yoshiaki Shimizu, Princeton University This work's profundity, clarity, intriguing revelations, and accessibility recommend it to a wide readership... Essential. Choice This is a fabulously stimulating scholarly work... a highly sophisticated study of some of the most influential productions in word and image that have sprung from the Genji... The book is highly recommended to those who want to learn about Genji replacements and canonization Modern Philology Groundbreaking, provocative, and broad in scope... Michael Emmerich has given us a prodigious work of scholarship on the history and aesthetics of translation, while seriously challenging us to think anew about the methods and assumptions we bring to our field of study. Monumenta Nipponica


The Tale of Genji is a brilliantly sustained work of literary criticism, quite the most engrossing book in the field of Japanese literature I have read in years. It is a rare book, one that is sure to have a profound and lasting impact. -- Gaye Rowley, Waseda University A stunning tour de force, The Tale of Genji reveals the manner in which the work was 'replaced' by various texts and how it was made, from the late nineteenth century, into a world classic both in and outside Japan. Throughout, Michael Emmerich engages with translation studies, reception theory, and current notions of world literature, writing in a transnational, translingual context. This book makes us profoundly aware of the transformation of the material Tale of Genji and reading practices in Japan from the late early modern through the postwar period, thus bridging the gap between early modern and modern literary studies as well as that between Japanese literary studies and contemporary translation studies. -- Haruo Shirane, Columbia University, author of Japan and the Culture of the Four Seasons Michael Emmerich's astute analyses and imaginative interpretations are likely to radically change our view of Japanese literature and the role translation has played in its constitution, and they expand even the notion of translation itself. This discerning study gives a refreshing look at how an Edo-period illustrated book was put together and how it functioned. Anyone interested in the visual culture of Japan should read this book. -- Yoshiaki Shimizu, Princeton University This work's profundity, clarity, intriguing revelations, and accessibility recommend it to a wide readership... Essential. Choice


Author Information

Michael Emmerich is associate professor of Japanese literature and cultural studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the editor of Read Real Japanese Fiction: Short Stories by Contemporary Writers and New Penguin Parallel Text: Short Stories in Japanese.

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