Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 45-51). Also available in print.

Dissertation (Ph.D.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Mary Gibson; submitted to the Dept. of English. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jun. 7, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-271).

Thesis--University of Illinois. / Vita. Photocopy of typescript. Ann Arbor, Mich. : University Microfilms, 1980. -- 20 cm. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 201-206).

This thesis aims to set the Engishiki Norito (hereafter Norito), a group of early Japanese liturgical texts, in the context of the broader Old Japanese textual tradition and, in the process, draw attention to their value as literary artefacts. This is achieved by valorizing the role in the texts of rhetoric - defined broadly as meaningful units of repetitive language - and demonstrating that rhetorical structures similar to those found in the Norito exist throughout the corpus of Old Japanese literature, as far as it is extant. There have only been two substantial attempts to engage with the repetitive language in the Norito as a network of structures or systems recognizable as rhetoric (Inamura & Inamura, 1956; Kameyama, 1995). While still valuable, these studies embody the combined legacies of diverse traditional discourses, borrowed Western notions of veracity versus ornament and narratives of continuity poorly applied to early Japan that have affected Norito scholarship generally. In particular, they do not pay close attention to the syntax, morphology and phonology of Old Japanese encoded in the texts, as distinct from later forms of Japanese. Neither do they emphasize the extent of the close intertextual bonds the Norito share with other Old Japanese texts, or the associative potential of logography in a textual tradition as sophisticated as that within which the Norito were recorded in writing. In Western Japanological discourse, the repetitively structured language termed rhetoric in this study has been openly viewed as detrimental to the Norito's literary worth (Sansom 1931, Philippi 1959, 1990); most likely as a result of the problematic status of rhetoric and repetition in Western modernity. This - coupled with disciplinary divisions in Japan - has resulted in the Norito becoming divorced from the mainstream corpus of Old Japanese literature, despite their close relationship to that corpus and despite their high degree of rhetorical sophistication. After addressing some of the reasons for the Norito's alienation in discourse on Japanese literature, and exploring some theoretical dimensions of rhetoric itself, this study proceeds to set the liturgies in the context of Old Japanese oral and textual cultures and to begin to introduce features of their rhetoric - noting that the interrelatedness of rhetorical structures is a major key to understanding them. The last three chapters of the study are concerned with rhyme, a special feature that is both an analogue of, and interconnected with, other rhetorical structures. Together, the three chapters argue that rhyme is an understudied but pervasive feature of Japanese poetry and song and that - in the Old Japanese case - rhyming structures constitute a significant component of the rhetoric of the Norito and other texts. The development of a robust analytical approach to rhetorical features of Old Japanese texts has been hampered by the persistent reluctance to associate Japanese literature with 'rhyme', or 韻 in - two terms with problematic heritages. In attempting to implement such an approach in the case of the Norito, it is hoped that this study will, in small measure, contribute to a better understanding of rhetorical texts in general and, above all, to the repositioning of the Norito within the mainstream corpus of Old Japanese literature, where they belong.

Akutagawa Ryūnosuke, one of the most widely read and translated authors of the Taishō period, wrote some two dozen short stories centered on the theme of Christianity during his brief career. In this paper, I examine these works, known as kirishitanmono, both in the context of the author’s oeuvre and the intellectual environment of his day. The kirishitanmono are examined for a pervasive use of obscure language and textual density which serves to exoticize Christianity and frame it as an essentially foreign religion. This religion becomes a metaphor for European ideology, which is criticized for its incompatibility with East Asian traditions and, in turn, presented as a metaphor for the impossibility of intercultural dialogue. Finally, I examine the image of the martyr, as presented in both the kirishitanmono and other religious stories, in which the convictions of martyrs are elevated as a pure form of ideology in defiance of modernity.

The value of literature in the contemporary age is a controversial issue. The challenge posed by the interpretation of this era is expressed by the provocative remarks of critics such as Karatani Kōjin and Suzuki Sadami maintaining that after the 80s modern "pure" literature died (History and Repetition, 2012; The Concept of "Literature" in Japan, 2006). Reading Karatani and Suzuki's comments as merely provocative, signifying that a form of literature has died, this study enquires into how literature (and the arts) have changed and found new ways of expression after the historical break of 1989. The dissertation offers immediacy as a possible answer. Immediacy is a theme, a literary device stressing the present moment submerging clear notions of past and present. The precondition for immediacy is an ideological vacuum, experienced by characters across age groups and genders, where they do not share social ideologies or collective purposes. In this isolation, they concentrate only on their local realities, on what they perceive directly (physically and emotionally), acting quickly and repeatedly in the absence of critical thought. The constant action is often carried out in response to corporeal stimuli, specifically violence and sex, that grant immediate gratification in the vacuum. However, at the core characters indulging in immediacy long for inter-personal connections. Building a community based on critical thought and mutual understanding is the solution to escape from immediacy. The dissertation explores manifestations of immediacy in contemporary Japanese literature and popular culture (manga and anime) published or broadcast between 1995 and 2011. Through the analyses of cultural theories, literature by Takahashi Genichirō, Taguchi Randy and Hirano Keiichirō, and influential works in manga and anime (Neon Genesis Evangelion, Psycho-Pass and Shingeki no kyojin), it shows the theme's relevance and discusses how it contributes to the broader fields of contemporary Japanese literature and popular culture. By doing so, the dissertation also provides a study of the current artistic panorama in Japan, one that is often neglected critically, but that speaks of its culture with great force and imagination.

Orientador(a): Natália Corrêa Porto Fadel Barcellos / Resumo: A japonesa Yoko Tawada é um dos nomes mais importantes dentro da literatura alemã contemporânea. A autora trabalha com diferentes tipos de texto em alemão e em japonês e dedica seu projeto literário justamente a esse entre lugar no qual vive. Das nackte Auge conta a história de uma jovem vietnamita que, por conta de um engano, vai parar em Paris no final da década de oitenta. A personagem torna-se, então, um ser estranho em um país estrangeiro onde não é capaz de comunicar-se com ninguém exceto as personagens de Catherine Deneuve no cinema. A narrativa dos filmes citados na obra influencia progressivamente a narrativa do romance culminando na fusão de ambas as mídias em questão. Tawada utiliza-se dos filmes como referências midiáticas de modo a criar uma relação transtextual na qual o hipotexto (os filmes) modifica e amplia o hipertexto (o romance). A sala de cinema, que, a princípio, caracterizar-se-ia como sendo um mero local de trânsito, ou seja, um não-lugar, passa a representar um local de identificação, significação e até mesmo de comunicação, isto é, um lugar segundo o conceito de Marc Augé. O presente trabalho pretende demonstrar como tal inversão no processo de construção identitária dá-se na narrativa do romance a partir da hibridização midiática entre o cinema e a literatura, suscitando de maneira extraordinária questões acerca do olhar (desnudo) sobre o estranho, o estrangeiro / Abstract: The Japanese author Yoko Tawada is one of the greatests names in german contemporary literature. She works with different texts in German and Japanese. She deals in her literary project particularly with this between-place where she actually lives in. Das nackte Auge tells the story of a young Vietnamese girl who is mistakenly taken to Paris by the end of the ninteen eighties. She becomes an alien in a foreign country and is incapable of communicating with anyone else but the characters played by Catherine Deneuve in the movies that she starts to watch. The narrative of these movies progressively contaminates the novel's narrative ending up in a complete fusion of both medias. Tawada uses the movies as media references creating a transtextual relation where the hypotext (the movies) modifies and expands the hypertext (the novel). The movie theater, usually seen as a transitory place, a non-place, becomes a place of identification and even communication, i.e. a place according to Marc Augé's concept. This work intends to demonstrate how this inversion of the identity building process evolves through the media hybridization between film and literature while, in an extraordinary way, raises questions about the (naked) look at the alien, the foreigner / Mestre

abstract: Hirano Keiichirou is an award-winning, contemporary Japanese author. He experiments with many styles, and his novels explore a broad range of themes and social issues. Unfortunately, little of his work is available in English translation, and he remains largely unknown to English-reading audiences. This thesis includes a brief overview of Hirano's career as well as translations and analyses of two of his short stories, "Tojikomerareta shounen" ("Trapped," 2003) and "Hinshi no gogo to namiutsu iso no osanai kyoudai" ("A Fatal Afternoon and Young Brothers on a Wave-swept Shore," 2003). These two stories are representative of the second period of Hirano's career, in which he focused on short fiction. They integrate experimental literary styles with contemporary, real-life themes to create effective, resonant literature. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Asian Languages and Civilizations 2012

O presente trabalho constitui um estudo sobre um conjunto de obras pertencentes ao gênero japonês de cunho autobiográfico denominado Romance do Eu, com o intuito de traçar características comuns a essas obras que sirvam como apontamentos para uma morfologia desse gênero surgido no início do século XX. Num primeiro momento, situamos o Romance do Eu no contexto histórico-literário do Japão e apresentamos as discussões de estudiosos japoneses na fase inicial de desenvolvimento dessa forma literária, além da visão de dois estudiosos estrangeiros sobre o gênero. Nesse percurso, traçamos ligações entre as obras estudadas com a repressão ideológica e o exercício da liberdade de expressão na postura acuada e resignada dos protagonistas, encontradas num conjunto de obras analisadas num segundo momento, que vão desde 1906, com a obra Futon (Acolchoado), de Tayama Katai, até o final da Segunda Guerra Mundial. Tais obras revelaram uma sensível e rica diversidade quando analisadas pelos elementos da narrativa que estruturam o texto, mas não foi possível encontrar textualmente aspectos que identificassem o protagonista da obra com seu autor. Na realidade, elas se mostraram uma forma velada de contestação ao sistema autoritário do Japão ao centrarem seu conteúdo em fatos da vida pessoal do autor e parodiarem os romances europeus introduzidos na época. Esse dialogismo do Romance do Eu desenvolve-se também no nível textual da obra de Dazai Osamu, intitulada Pôr-do-Sol, escrita em 1947, logo após a rendição do Japão e ainda sob a ocupação das tropas norte-americanas, incumbidas de iniciar a democratização do país. O estudo desenvolvido nesse terceiro momento mostra que o autor utiliza, ainda, outras formas literárias que privilegiaram a ficção na literatura japonesa, elabora personagens que são desdobramentos de si mesmo e que dialogam entre si e faz uso de diferentes formas narrativas, que se mesclam à intertextualidade de obras japonesas e ocidentais, criando, assim, uma obra que dispensa o rótulo de Romance do Eu e assegura a sobrevivência dessa forma narrativa na prosa moderna do Japão. / ABSTRACT From Katai to Dazai: Notes for Morphology of the Novel of the Self consists of a study on a set of literary works belonging to the autobiographical character Japanese genre denominated Novel of the Self, aiming at outlining common characteristics to these works that serve as notes for a morphology of this genre started in the beginning of the XX century. In a first instance the Novel of the Self is placed in the Japanese historical-literary context and the discussions of Japanese scholars in the initial development phase of this literary form are presented, as well as the vision of two foreign scholars about the genre. In this trajectory are outlined connections of the works studied with the ideological repression and the exercise of the freedom of expression in the cornered and acquiescent posture of protagonists, being these connections found in a set of works analyzed in a second instance, comprehending 1906 with the work of Futon (Quilt) by Tayama Katai, up to the end of the Second World War. Such works have revealed an insightful and rich diversity when analyzed by the elements of the narrative which structure the text, but aspects that could identify the work?s protagonist with its author have not been possible to find textually. As a matter of fact, they have revealed a veiled way of contest to the Japan?s authoritative way as they have focused their content on facts of the author?s personal life and parodied the European novels introduced at that time. This dialogism in the Novel of the Self is also developed on the textual level of the work of Dazai Osamu entitled Sunset, written in 1947, right after the surrender of Japan while under the occupation of the American troops charged with the task of beginning the country?s democratization. The study developed in this third instance reveals that the author uses, in addition, other literary forms that benefit the fiction in the Japanese literature, makes up characters that are developments of himself and that also talk among themselves, and makes use of different forms of narratives that merge to the intertextuality of Japanese and Western works, creating, as a result, a work that excuses the label of Novel of the Self and, assures the endurance of this narrative form in the Japans modern prose.

This thesis examines references to priests and temples of the Japanese Pure Land Buddhist school claiming Ippen (1239-1289) as founder; the most important of the lineages was the Yugyō-ha, or 'itinerancy school'. Scattered in Noh plays, epics, documents, histories, diaries, et cetera over a four-hundred-year period, these references are the residue of a long-term and successful propaganda campaign advertising doctrines, miracles, and services to the military class. The thesis focuses especially on the themes and formulaic diction borrowed from existing texts and developed by the school as it distinguished itself from other Pure Land schools. The rôle of what became the Jishū (usually translated 'Time Sect') in the guardianship of the identity of the founder of the Tokugawa family is of special interest.