My dissertation, The Female Body, Motherhood, and Old Age: Representations of Women in Hell in Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Japan, examines the literary and visual representations of women in hell in late medieval and early modern Japan, with particular attention to the female body, motherhood, and old age. My focus is the late Muromachi and early Edo periods, when a constellation of new hells began to be conceptualized that had serious ramifications for representation of women. I examine a group of otogizōshi texts and hell paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, which were disseminated widely through different media (picture scrolls, screen paintings, and narrative texts) and which generated a set of motifs representing women in the afterlife. I relate the emergence of these motifs to the larger history of the discursive construction of the female body and the evolution of representations of hell in premodern Japan. I argue that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, representations of women in hell in these texts and paintings shifted in their focus to domestic relationships, specifically mother-child and wife-husband relationships. This change is best exemplified by the late medieval set of gendered hells (The Hell of Barren Women, The Hell of Two Wives, and Children’s Limbo), which represent the body of the woman from three perspectives: 1) as infertile (as in the Hell of Barren Women), 2) as related to animals (such as the serpentine queen in Daibutsu no go-engi (The Venerable Origins of the Great Buddha) and the serpent-women in the Hell of Two Wives), and 3) as stigmatized or punished for excess desire/attachment in their mother-child and wife-husband relationships (as in the Hell of Two Wives). This dissertation also analyzes woman as erotic object, as mother, and as aging body from a comparative Japan-China perspective. By comparing similar motifs that emerged at approximately the same historical moments—the snake queen falling into hell in Daibutsu no go-engi with the snake queen in “Empress Xi turning into a python,” and Datsueba (Clothes-snatching Hag) with Meng Po (Lady of Forgetfulness)—I am able to highlight distinctive features of these new hells for women as well as compare the differing functions of hell shown by these Japanese and Chinese examples. In Chapter 1, “Women Falling Into Hell in Early Medieval Japan,” I analyze three early medieval tales of women journeying to and from Tateyama hell in the eleventh-century Dai Nihonkoku Hokkekyō genki and twelfth-century Konjaku monogatari shū in order to provide background for my later discussion on the new concerns for women that emerged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I show how the salvation of the deceased female protagonists depended on the proper rituals being performed by family members and I make clear the significance that motherhood was accorded in early medieval Buddhist tales of women in hell. I then examine how representations of women evolved and became more complex in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries with the emergence of the Hell of Barren Women, where childless women are punished, and the Hell of Two Wives, in which two serpent women coil their bodies around a man with whom they had become involved in a triangular relationship. In Chapter 2, “Barren Women Hells and Daibutsu no go-engi (The Venerable Origins of the Great Buddha),” I show how the Hell of Barren Women stresses the reproductive responsibilities of women. The representations of the Hell of Barren Women, reflecting a growing female audience in the late Muromachi and early Edo periods, are clear evidence of a belief that it is motherhood that is a woman’s passport to salvation. In Chapter 3, I examine “The Serpentine Queen and the Chinese Tale of Empress Xi Hui Turning Into a Python.” A comparison with Daibutsu no go-engi shows that the Chinese stories about Empress Xi focus more on the feelings and observations of the living, while Daibutsu no go-engi stresses the accumulation and elimination of negative karma. Chapter 4, “The Hell of Two Wives: Transformed Women and the Jealousy of Joint-Wives,” examines the motif of the “transformed woman” found in the Lotus Sutra, the eleventh-century Hokke genki, and the mid-sixteenth century Dōjōji engi, showing how a negative connection between women and the dragon-serpent body was established, and how the animalized female body relates to the question of desire. The entwined threesome in the Hell of Two Wives not only exemplifies a domestic narrative of betrayal and resentment; it also shows a transition from a general stigmatization of the female body towards a more specific condemnation of lust, jealousy, and resentment—which are all gendered female. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, women’s roles evolved to reflect a desire to maintain the stability of family. At the same time, these representations began focusing more on situations in which women’s efforts to control body or mind met with failure. Chapter 5, “Old Women as Keepers of the Borders: Datsueba and Meng Po,” analyzes two figures of hags in hell: Datsueba in Japan and Meng Po in China. While Datsueba watches over the dead as they descend to the depths of hell to receive judgment, Meng Po cares for them as they make their way out of hell to achieve reincarnation. I argue that both Datsueba and Meng Po reinforce the border of hell by depriving the deceased of their social identities, but while Datsueba punishes and purifies the deceased, Meng Po focuses on the transitional stage between death and the next life, and her memory-erasing function shows that, paradoxically, in Chinese hell deceased souls are not liberated from the basic Confucian relationships that are so important to the living.

in English The main topic of this thesis is the co-called Five Mountains literature (Gozan bungaku), a collection of literary works by Japanese medieval Zen monks written in literary Chinese. This dissertation thesis focuses predominantly on the development of themes and stylistic characteristics of poetry by Gido Shushin and Zekkai Chushin. The focus lays on the stylistic and thematic differences between the works of the aforementioned poets, on the ongoing secularization of the poetic production of the Zen monks and on the influence they exerted over the later generations. Their literary contacts with the poets writing in Japanese will also be discussed.

Situated in environmental history and ecocriticism, this thesis traces the emergence of modern Japanese literature at the beginning of the twentieth century. Using agential realism and its concepts ‘diffraction’ and ‘becoming’, this thesis conducts an anti-essential ecocritical analysis. It aims to overcome recurring dualisms in literary analyses and to trace negotiations of concepts such as ‘nature’ and ‘self’ in modern Japanese literature. The thesis scrutinises ‘diffractions’ between the subject and the object in novels and through very acts of producing novels. These ‘diffractions’ are analysed in relation to ‘becomings’ of the concept ‘nature’ as well as ‘literature’ in the context of Japanese modernisation. Based on diverse struggles in ‘becomings’ in modern literary history, the thesis concludes with questioning the cliché of Japanese culture (the lack of absolute ‘self’ and ‘love of nature’) and also comments on analyses of ‘diffractions’ as a viable method for ecocritical analyses or the ‘ecologisation’ of literary analyses.

No description available.

Shūsaku Endō (1923-1996) is well known in Japan and abroad for his novels and his Christian faith. The present work offers for the first time an English translation of his 1973 play, Menamugawa no Nihonjin, which deals with the career of Nagamasa Yamada, a Japanese adventurer who traveled to Siam in the early seventeenth century and became one of the most powerful men in that kingdom. The introduction to the translation looks back at Endō’s career and his little known relationship with theater. The focus shifts to the play’s historical background, inquiring into Endō’s motivations in choosing this subject and how he manipulated his sources to achieve certain goals. The translation is defended and compared to a previous Italian translation. The analysis of the original work and the process of translating it is informed throughout by M.M. Bhaktin’s concept of chronotopes as used in the field of translation studies by Annie Brisset. The introduction is followed by the translation of the entire play of three acts and twelve scenes.

博士(国文学) / Doctor of Philosophy in Japanese Literature / 同志社大学 / Doshisha University

No description available.

In this thesis the subject of grief and healing are examined in three novels by the Japanese writers Hiromi Kawakami, Ruth Ozeki and Banana Yoshimoto. The method for the analysis is based on psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ Five Stages of Grief theory, but in the analysis of these novels, it became clear that the grief/healing-stages for the protagonists are not expressed in the exact same manner as the non-fictional patients of Kübler-Ross’ study. The analysis shows that this is partly due to the fact that the narratives take place in Japan and that there is a clear intervention where the writers have used magical interruptions in their realistic portrayal of bereavement, to help the protagonists begin to recover. These magical interruptions, this thesis states, are the use of magical realism, especially connected to the long history of Japanese folklore and myth. As a result, this thesis presents a modified model of analysis, which also reflects how the protagonists filled with bereavement and sorrow can be helped to heal and recover by the interruption of fantastic and magical events. Through this study it has become clear that not only is the need for healing significant but the need for family, relationships and a sense of belonging are just as important. To re-connect with their lost loved ones, whomever they may be, these characters must cross through the magical interventions within the narratives and dare to reach out to the people around them, strengthened by their loss and trauma, rather than fearing relationships with others due to previous trauma and grief.

O estudo de obras clássicas literárias japonesas do gênero zuihitsu é um desafio para pesquisadores no Brasil, pois, além das dificuldades trazidas pelas diferenças entre as línguas, incorre em novas conceituações de modalidade de escritos. Apesar de ser considerado em geral como equivalente ao ensaio ocidental, é possível observar divergências que indicam uma necessidade de adequar o olhar crítico ao gênero oriental. Para isso, foram abordadas questões concernentes às definições de gênero literário no ocidente através de um apanhado histórico da crítica, levando em conta a etimologia do termo; e algumas considerações a respeito do caráter linguístico dos conceitos conforme a teoria de Wittgenstein. Em seguida, pretendeu-se esquematizar as abordagens do ensaio enquanto gênero, remontando sua história, através de passagens dos Ensaios de Montaigne, de alguns textos de Bacon, Hume e Adorno, entre outros ensaístas e críticos que versam sobre o assunto, de maneira a delinear características próprias dessa categoria ocidental. Além disso, examinamos, a partir de suas formulações e de sua recepção, a possibilidade de se encontrar uma tradição também no Brasil. Posteriormente, buscamos mapear as origens do zuihitsu em paralelo com as do ensaio. E, então, analisamos alguns textos de Makura no Sôshi em comparação a outros de Tsurezuregusa , duas das três obras consideradas basilares e essenciais à compreensão do gênero japonês. Essa análise comparativa foi feita tendo por base principalmente a presença de certos temas em comum, como a motivação da escrita, certas considerações sobre as quatro estações, sobre os momentos de ócio ou, ainda, sobre os monges. Nosso intuito foi trazer à tona semelhanças e diferenças entre as obras de modo a elucidar características do gênero que o aproximam ou o distanciam dos ensaios e de outros gêneros ocidentais, na esperança de que isso nos levasse à adequação do olhar supramencionada. E, por fim, foi realizado um fechamento a partir de considerações a respeito dos gêneros ocidentais e do ensaio, do zuihitsu e do cotejo das obras clássicas japonesas, que nos leve à conceituação desse gênero japonês. / The study of classic Japanese literatures genre zuihitsu is a challenge for scholars in Brazil, because besides the difficulties about languages differences, it incurs in a new conceptualizations of written genres. Although some scholars consider it as equivalent to Western essays, it is possible to observe some disparitys that indicate a need to adjust our critical view to the Eastern genre. In order to achieve that goal, we had approached some questions about Western genres definitions through a historical and literary overviews, as well as we had taken into consideration the terms etymology, and referred some ponderations about the linguistic character following some of the Wittgenstein theory concepts. After that, we intended to outline a scheme of essays as a literary genre, retracing its history, through passages of Montaigne\'s Essays, of some texts from Bacon, Hume and Adorno, among others essayists and critics that deal with the subject, in order to delineate its characteristics. More than that, we have examined, from its formulations and its reception, the possibility of finding also such a tradition in Brazil. Subsequently, we have seek mapping zuihitsu origins in confrontation to the essays ones. In addition, thereafters, we have analysed some texts from Makura no sôshi and compared them to others from Tsurezuregusa, two of the three masterpieces which are considered basic and essential to understanding the Japanese genre. This comparative analysis was done by means of their common themes, such as the written motivations, some considerations of four seasons, moments in idleness or even monks. Our aim was to bring out similarities and differences between them to elucidate genre characteristics that bring them nearer or make them apart of essays, hoping that this would lead us doing some adjustments of our critical view. Finally we have finalized this dissertation by referring some considerations on the Western genre, the essays, the zuihitsu, and the comparison of Japanese classical pieces, which lead us to conceptualyze the Japanese genre.

My area of research is Modern Japanese Literature and Film, and my thesis examines the collaborations between the writer Abe Kôbô and filmmaker Teshigahara Hiroshi, two artists who addressed the themes of identity and alienation in modern society through their work together. Specifically, I focus on the process of adaptation, looking at how the themes from the original texts are approached and captured cinematically. Such a study will allow me to explore the relationship between the two media, the differences in the presentation of theme and the possibilities of translation. The collaborations between Abe and Teshigahara offer a rare opportunity to conduct a survey on a specific pair of writer and director over the course of several works, tracking the evolution of their artistic vision and practice. What I hope to achieve through this project is to situate film adaptation as a valuable branch in the study of narrative, demonstrating its exciting possibilities in providing a discourse on the re-imagining of words through images.