Murasaki Shikibu: The Tale of Genji - A Student Guide

by Richard Bowring

Murasaki Shikibu's The Tale of Genji, written in Japan in the early eleventh century, is acknowledged to be one of Japan's greatest literary achievements, and sometimes thought of as the world's first novel. This introduction to the Genji sketches its cultural background, offers detailed analysis of the text, including language and style, and ends by tracing the history of its reception through nine centuries of cultural change. This book will be useful for survey courses in Japanese and world literature.

Genres: Japanese Literature, Fiction, Japan, Literary Criticism

122 pages, Paperback

First published April 28, 1988

About the author

Richard John Bowring is an English academic and leading scholar in Japanese studies. He has served as Professor of Japanese Studies at the University of Cambridge since 1985 and is an Honorary Fellow of Downing College. From 2000 to 2012, he was Master of Selwyn College, overseeing significant expansion, including the construction of Ann’s Court. Bowring studied Oriental Studies at Downing College, earning his BA in 1968 and completing his PhD in 1973. He has also held teaching positions at Princeton and Columbia. His publications span East Asian culture, politics, and history, with notable monographs and articles in major journals. In recognition of his contributions to Japanese studies and UK-Japan relations, he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, in 2013.

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely useful for getting more out of the novel within its own context.

Unfortunately does not really address the questions that will immediately jump out for the modern reader of Genji, notably around gender and sexual violence

[Caomhghain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, thorough, workaday introduction to what you need to know to start reading Genji fruitfully.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't really enjoy this book. I know it's a classic work (which I don't usually enjoy, actually) of Japanese literature that is recognized for shining a light into the lives of nobles. I didn't like the treatment of women in this book. By today's standards, this book is not good to women. There's even a part in here where men gossip about their failed love lives. One man regales his companions about a story of a woman who wasn't affectionate enough when he was feigning disinterest to catch her eye, so he ignored her harder and she died of what he thought was a broken heart. The next woman he talked about showed too much interest in him and he dumped her. The treatment of women didn't really improve throughout. This is a classic work I could have been happy to live without and am glad that the version I read was extremely abridged.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

How the ladies of eleventh Century China had enough freedom to write the Very First novel.