The course is divided into two modules. Module A) An introduction to classical Japanese language and grammar ; Module B) a literary introduction, translation and grammatical analysis of selections from a text in classical Japanese, chosen from Heian or Kamakura literature.
PIGEOT, Jacqueline, Manuel de japonais classique – Initiation au bungo, Paris, Langues & Monde/L’Asiathéque, 1998.
SHIRANE, Haruo, Classical Japanese. A Grammar, New York, Columbia University Press, 2005.
Module B)
I) Texts
- Gosen wakashû, a cura di Katagiri Yôichi, Iwanami Shoten (“Shin Nihon koten bungaku taikei 6”), Tôkyô, 1990.
- Kagerô nikki, a cura di Kimura Masanori e Imuta Tsunehisa, in Tosa nikki. Kagerô nikki, a cura di Kikuchi Yasuhiko, Kimura Masanori, Imuta Tsunehisa, Shôgakukan (“Shinpen Nihon Koten Bungaku Zenshû 13)”, Tôkyô, 1995.
- Kokin wakashû, a cura di Kojima Noriyuki e Arai Eizô, Iwanami Shoten, (“Shin Nihon koten bungaku taikei 5”), Tôkyô, 1989.
- Takamitsushû to Tônomine shôshô monogatari. Honmon, chûshaku, kenkyû, a cura di Sasagawa, Hiroji, Tôkyô, Kazama Shobô, 2006.
II) Suggested readings
- ARNTZEN, Sonja (a cura di), The Kagerô Diary: A Woman’s Autobiographical Text from Tenth Century Japan, Ann Arbor, Center for Japanese Studies The University of Michigan, 1997.
- CRANSTON,, Edwin A. (a cura di), A Waka Anthology. Volume Two: Grasses of Remembrance, Stanford UP, Stanford, 2 voll., 2006.
- GATTEN, Aileen, Fact, Fiction and Heian Literary Prose: Epistolary Narration in Tônomine shôshô monogatari, in «Monumento Nipponica», vol. 53, n. 2, 1998, pp. 154-195.
- GHIDINI, Chiara, Aware. Storia semantica di un termine nella poesia giapponese classica, Napoli, M. D'Auria Editore, 2012.
- KONISHI, Jin’ichi, A History of Japanese Literature – Volume Two:The Early Middle Ages, a cura di Earl Miner, Princeton, Princeton UP, 1986. (cap. 8, Prose in Japanese, pp. 251-394).
- MIYAKE, Lynne Kimi, Tônomine shôshô monogatari: A Translation and Critical Study, Tesi di dottorato, University of California, Berkeley, 1985, UMI 8610147.
- MOSTOW, Joshua S. (a cura di) At the House of Gathered Leaves. Shorter Biographical and Autobiographical Narratives from Japanese Court Literature, Joshua Mostow ed., and Honolulu, University of Hawai’i Press, 2004.
- PIGEOT, Jaqueline (a cura di) Memoires d’une éphémère (954-974) par la mère de Fujiwara no Michitsuna, Paris, Collège de France Institut des Hautes Études Japonaises, Diffusion: De Boccard, 2006.
- SAGIYAMA, Ikuko (a cura di), Kokin waka shû – Raccolta di poesie giapponesi antiche e moderne, Ariele, Milano, 2000.
- WATANABE, Minoru e Richard BOWRING, Style and Point of View in the Kagerô nikki, in “The Journal of Japanese Studies”, vol. 10, n. 2, 1984, pp. 365-384.
Learning Objectives
The course is divided into two modules (A, B), 36 hours each.
Module A): By teaching the fundamentals of classical Japanese this module aims to provide students with the basic tools to approach classical literature in the original. Module B): By undertaking the partial translation and analysis of a representative literary work or author of the Heian or Kamakura period, this module aims to strengthen the students’ grammatical skills and to familiarize them with the stylistic, rhetorical and cultural aspects of texts written in classical Japanese.
The course aims to provide:
Knowledge:
- Advanced-level knowledge of the grammar of classical Japanese, with special reference to the Japanese style (wabun) developed in the Heian period.
- Knowledge and comprehension of the vocabulary of classical Japanese;
- In-depth knowledge of a particular author or a specific literary text representative of the Heian or Kamakura period, analyzed in its stylistic and rhetorical aspects and interpreted within its historical and cultural background.
Skills:
- the comprehension at an advanced level of the grammatical structures of classical Japanese;
- the comprehension in its historical and cultural nuances of the vocabulary of a text in wabun;
- the acquisition of, and the ability to use the methodological and bibliographical tools required for the study of classical Japanese literature;
- the ability to read and comprehend a classical text as situated in its historical and cultural background, with special reference to the literary canons and models it relates to.
- The ability translate a text of classical literature by making use of its modern annotated edition.
Prerequisites
Lessons are intended for students already acquainted with modern Japanese (intermediate level). In order to attend classes students must therefore have acquired at least 12-18 credits (CFU) in modern Japanese. A basic knowledge of Japanese literary history, with special reference to the Heian and Kamakura periods is also required.
Teaching Methods
Lectures. During classes students will be asked simple grammatical questions and will be encouraged to translate short sentences from bungo into italian in order to check their comprehension of the subjects under discussion. At least one drill on the main grammatical rules taught in module A will be held at the end of the course.
Further information
When necessary, the translation of the selected texts of module B may be preceded by supplementary advanced-level grammatical lessons. If the comprehension of a text requires it, basic notions of kanbun kundoku will also be provided.
Type of Assessment
Module A): Students will sit a short written examination on classical grammar, followed by an oral test. Students will be mainly asked:
- to inflect verbs;
- to add auxiliary verbs and/or conjunctive particles to the right inflected form of a verb, adjective or preceding auxiliary verb;
- to comprehend the correct meaning of an auxiliary verb when used in a short sentence;
- to comprehend the meaning of case particles (kakujoshi), conjunctive particles (setsuzokujoshi) and of bound particles (kakari joshi);
- to translate short sentences and poems (waka) from bungo into Italian.
The written exam will be held in the morning of the first examination day of each session.
Module B): Students will sit an oral exam. They will be asked to translate and analyze in their grammatical, stylistic, and contextual (historical and literary) aspects of excerpts selected from the texts studied in class. A list of the literary excerpts selected for the oral exam will be given before the end of the course.
Marks are calculated as the average of marks gained for the written examination (Module A) and marks gained for the oral examination (Module B). A pass in the written examination (about 50% of right answers) is precondition for access to the oral examination of Module B.
Course program
An Introduction to classical Japanese
Module A)
An introduction to the ortography and grammar of bungo (“literary language”), paying special attention to the linguistic features of late ancient Japanese (chûko nihongo), i.e., the classical language of the Heian period.
The main subjects discussed are as follows. A) A short account of the phonology of ancient Japanese. B) The historical kana spelling (rekishiteki kanazukai). C) The inflected forms of verbs (katsuyôkei). D) Inflecting suffixes (or auxiliary verbs, jodôshi). E) Bound particles (kakari joshi) and the rule of linking (kakari musubi). F) An introduction to case particles (kakujoshi) and conjunctive particles (setsuzokujoshi). G) A basic introduction to honorific verbs.
Each item will be illustrated with examples drawn from classical texts, mainly belonging to Heian and Kamakura literature.
Module B)
Reading kobun (classical texts): An Introduction to Tônomine shôshô monogatari (The Tale of the Lesser Captain of Tônomine).
Also called Takamitsu nikki (The Journal of Takamitsu), the Tônomine shôshô monogatari was written around 962 by an unknown author, presumably a lesser noblewoman in the service of Fujiwara no Morouji’s daughter.
Taking the form of an epistolary tale, the Tônomine shôshô monogatari records through the correspondence of his family circle the shock produced in 961 by Fujiwara no Takamitsu’s (ca. 939-977 or 985) unexpected decision to take the tonsure and enter mount Hiei as a monk, thus leaving behind his wife and little daughter, and his younger sister Aimiya.
Lessons will first deal with the historical background, briefly illustrating Takamitsu’s lineage and the dynamics of political ascent or failure within the powerful Fujiwara clan, with special reference to the career of Takamitsu’s deceased father, Fujiwara no Morosuke (908-960), and of Takamitsu’s half-brothers. A brief survey of the literary production of the IX century will follow. Focusing on the shift towards the composition of “private”, “conversational” waka marked by the second imperial anthology (Gosen wakashû, ca 958), and the subsequent flowering of poetic narratives which took place from around the middle-second half of the century, lessons will succinctly examine the social and political functions of contiguous genres such as personal poetry collections (shikashû), lyrical tales (utamonogatari) and journals or memoirs (nikki). The Fujiwaras’ role in these trends, i.e., their patronage of, and direct involvement in the compilation/composition of “lyrical” narratives will be considered in some detail. On these premises, lessons will then proceed to discuss the possible part played by Fujiwara no Koremasa (or Koretada 924-972), Takamitsu’s half brother and successor to Morosuke, in the editing and publication of the Tônomine shôshô monogatari.
The translation and analysis of relevant sections of the tale will first permit to appreciate its narrative style, a “narration conducted through the voice of the reporting speaker” (Miyake) which assumes that the audience is already familiar with the story, thus omitting any objective description of ‘characters’ and facts. Dubbed “tôjishateki hyôgen” by Watanabe Minoru, this “on-the-spot-in the-middle-of things-kind of narrative style” (Miyake), or “unmediated voice” (Bowring) has often been ascribed to the still undeveloped nature of vernacular prose (wabun), but, as it will be seen, it could also be interpreted as a rhetorical strategy for the creation of an emotionally charged account.
The second point to be explored will be the forms (tanka vs. chôka) and the rhetorical techniques of the poetic dialogues (zôtôka) on which the text hinges. Although the use of waka exchanges in private contexts has been defined as a discourse similar to oral conversation, the analysis of the exchanges will show the public (communally shared) dimension involved in this kind of communication.
Through the analysis of the recurrent emotion terms ushi and aware, the translation will also bring into focus the affective dimension of this text. Though open to discussion, Aileen Gatten’s analysis of the oshigami (tipped-in sheet) of the Katsuranomiyabon Iseshû, and the hypothesis that the variant poems transcribed in it could be a fragmentary copy of the original poetic documents on which the anonymous author drew for the Tônomine shôshô monogatari version, will help to show how at the time aware was being highlighted, ‘discussed’ and redefined through poetic narratives as a prosocial feeling, a moral bond somehow compensating for the «sorrowful» (ushi) nature of the «world» (yo no naka), that is the uncertainty of human relations and of the individual condition which characterized Heian society.
Finally, and if time permits, the analysis of relevant sections will touch on the stylistic and thematic similarities that link the Tônomine shôshô monogatari to a masterpiece of Heian nikki bungaku, namely the memoirs of Michitsuna’s Mother (935?-995), Kagerô nikki (The Kagerô Diary, 975 ca.).