{"product_id":"fictions-of-femininity-literary-inventions-of-gender-in-japanese-court-womens-memoirs-9780804733786","title":"Fictions of Femininity: Literary Inventions of Gender in Japanese Court Women's Memoirs","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe history of Japanese memoir literature began over a thousand years ago, its greatest practitioners being women of the \"middle ranks\" whose literary talents won many of them positions as ladies-in-waiting at the Heian imperial court. As female writers they both inhabited and helped create a discursive world obsessed with the arts of concealment and self-display, the perils and possibilities--erotic, political, and literary--of real and metaphorical peepholes. As memoirists they were virtuosos in the exacting art of feminine self-representation.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFictions of Femininity\u003c\/i\u003e explores the Heian memoirists' creations of themselves in four texts: \u003ci\u003eKagero nikki\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eThe Kagero Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e, after 974), \u003ci\u003eMakura no soshi\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eThe Pillow Book\u003c\/i\u003e, after 994), \u003ci\u003eSarashina nikki\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eThe Sarashina Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e, after 1058), and \u003ci\u003eSanuki no suke nikki\u003c\/i\u003e (\u003ci\u003eThe Memoir of the Sanuki Assistant Handmaid\u003c\/i\u003e, after 1108). Essays on the individual memoirs pursue a dual interest, asking how each text works as a rhetorical construct and how it reflects the author's negotiations with Heian fictions about women and writing.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLetting the memoirs themselves set the terms for exploring gender constructions, \u003ci\u003eFictions of Femininity\u003c\/i\u003e addresses a spectrum of related issues. The reading of \u003ci\u003eThe Kagero Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e probes two traditional avenues of feminine expression: the writing of \u003ci\u003ewaka\u003c\/i\u003e and the discourse of Buddhist nunhood. Two essays on \u003ci\u003eThe Sarashina Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e reveal a fine weave of literary, religious, and autoerotic fantasies, highlighting the intellectual gifts of a memoirist long misread as naive and girlish.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe essay on \u003ci\u003eThe Memoir of the Sanuki Assistant Handmaid\u003c\/i\u003e examines the use of spirit possession as metaphor for commemorative writing, tracing the balancing act its author performed in the midst of political intrigues at court. The relationship between the memoir and voyeurism takes center stage in the closing essay on \u003ci\u003eThe Pillow Book\u003c\/i\u003e, which compares its author's treatment of the thematics of \"seeing and being seen\" with that of her chief rival, Murasaki Shikibu, creator of \u003ci\u003eThe Tale of Genji\u003c\/i\u003e. Taken together, the essays in this book underscore the diversity of the Heian memoirists' responses to their roles as women and as writers in one of the most unusual epochs of Japanese history.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Edith Sarra\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Stanford University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/01\/1999\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 344\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.19lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.34h x 6.38w x 0.99d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780804733786\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEdith Sarra is Associate Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, Bloomington.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThis title is not returnable\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Stanford University Press","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":40801550172275,"sku":"9.7808E+12","price":134.43,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0555\/9255\/0515\/products\/img_17c6cbc0-3754-435e-9441-a6ae060032ee.jpg?v=1682425813","url":"https:\/\/bookstorenmore.com\/products\/fictions-of-femininity-literary-inventions-of-gender-in-japanese-court-womens-memoirs-9780804733786","provider":"Bookstore N More","version":"1.0","type":"link"}